Sister Lost
by Trieo
Summary: Hinata's world had been torn asunder. A chance meeting with a boy and a once in a lifetime promise saved her. Three years later, they are now ready to move forward together. AU: What if Hanabi was abducted instead of Hinata and was killed during the attempt. Stronger Naruto and Hinata, overall balance somewhat kept. M rating for safety; Violence, blood and some adult humor.
1. Chapter 1: First Day

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or any associated characters.

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**A/N: **This Fanfic is rated M for Violence, Blood and the occasional adult joke (This is a world where several key characters read adult novels, where a character invented a jutsu that shows a harem of naked girls, meaning these things will pop up occasionally, along with the fact that teasing about something between Naruto and Hinata, amuse me to no end)

This is also my first fanfiction, I do not have any beta readers so spelling, characterization and such are all on me, feel free to point out any and all glaring errors. Especially since English isn't my first language. I will try to avoid all the regular pitfalls, but it will be unavoidable that things slip through, feedback will allow me to fix mistakes and prevent future ones. So tear my grammar and spelling a new one if you find errors.

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**Chapter 1: First Day**

**Sasuke at the Third Training Ground**

A black haired youth stood leaning against a post in the middle of a clearing in the forest that is the Third Training Ground.

Sasuke looking at the area with a scowl on his face. Not only had his new Jōnin-sensei still not arrived, now 20 minutes after they were supposed to meet. His new team members hadn't shown up either.

Why had it to be those two on his team anyways. They were nothing special, why did he, the last Uchiha, have to be dragged down by two useless pieces of trash. If the rumors was to be believed, they were busy doing _other_ stuff with each other and would be useless on a team. If what he saw yesterday was any indication, the rumors was probably true.

Suddenly a loud snap was heard from the forest, Sasuke looked in the direction of the sound. The loud snap was followed by a muffled "Eep". Two young adolescents emerged from a bush, looking incredibly disheveled.

The young girl with the dark blue hair and silver eyes, looked a little worse for wear, her hair littered with small leaves and the occasional twig, she had dirt on her knees and was looking a little flushed, trying to straighten the over-sized jacket she was wearing. While behind her was a Blond boy looking equally affected, dirt was visible several places on that strange orange jumpsuit he was wearing. His hair was filled with leaves, making it look like he was trying to wear an entire bush on his head.

'So that's why they were late, they were doing _something_ in the bushes' Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the two, he wouldn't have believed that the Heiress to the strongest clan in Konohagakure, would demean herself with an outcast like that, but it was none of his business. In fact having those two together, would only serve to make it easier for the Uchiha clan to reclaim their right as the strongest, when he would eventually revive it.

The boy with the yellow hair eventually noticed Sasuke, straightening up and put his hands up behind his head while walking closer. Sasuke sighed to himself, this really was happening, he'd rather avoid that dobe.

The boy with the yellow hair yelled out to him as he got closer. "Oi Sasuke-teme where is our sensei?"

Letting out a low "hn" Sasuke shrugged slightly. Might as well not antagonize his new teammates yet, after all there were worse people to be grouped with. A slight shiver ran out his spine, when he imagined being placed on the same team as the blond gossip and the pink-haired banshee. At least they wouldn't be dogging him all of the time now they had graduated the academy.

A low thump broke Sasuke's line of thought, he looked up and saw their Jōnin-sensei Kakashi standing on the log he was leaning against. Eyes widening slightly in surprise, he quickly composed himself as was seemly for someone of his status. Silently swearing that he hadn't even noticed their new sensei, before he was standing over him.

He looked at his teammates, neither had jumped in surprise, but he noted they had both assumed two stances he hadn't seen before. He couldn't make what to think of the odd stance the blond had assumed, but considering he was below average in their class in Taijutsu he didn't really find it odd.

The Hyūga heir was standing in something that he recognized as a Jūken stance, but there was something wrong with it. It didn't look like the katas he had read about in his clan's vast secret library. The Uchiha had prided themselves in collecting as much information about all the techniques that was used around the Shinobi world and had a gigantic hidden library with all information collected. He had made it a point to study up on the Hyūga clan since it was revealed yesterday that the heir to the clan was to be a teammate.

As far as reactions to a surprise goes, being ready for battle was one of the better ones. Perhaps this might not be as bad as he might have feared. He quickly pushed the thought to the back of his mind, reminding himself that they hadn't actually done anything to show that they wouldn't be a dragging him down yet.

His teammates quickly relaxed as they recognized their new Sensei.

A slightly jovial "Yo" was heard for the man standing behind him. Following him with his eyes as the Jōnin jumped to the ground between him and his new teammates. Rattling off some lame excuse about a cat, a bus, a cloth line and a baby carriage before going into details about the Bell test they were about to do.

The three were standing next to each other when the Jōnin said "Start". He jumped backwards drawing a kunai. What happened next took him by surprise as both the Hyūga and the dobe jumped forward towards their Sensei in incredible burst of speed. They had gone from a standstill to exploding forward towards their target.

The Hyūga reached Kakashi first, ducking low preparing to strike with a Jūken strike to his left side. Kakashi holding a book in his left hand did a cross jab down towards the heiress. In the same second the blond was on him, blocking the punch meant for the girl, while she with a dexterity that he wouldn't have thought possible, dodged further down to the right past the fist still held by Naruto, hitting the side of their sensei's knee. Faltering for less than half a second, the young Uchiha saw his chance and whipped two Shuriken towards their sensei, curving around his sides. The wire attached to them glinting slightly in the sun as they flew around him, ensnaring their sensei. As the shuriken continued their decaying orbit over his ducking teammates into their target, when they finally hit, he simply vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Kage Bunshin" he whispered with a bit of respect and awe in his voice, eyes narrowed as he scanned the area around him, trying to figure out when Kakashi had replaced himself with a clone and where he was hiding.

"Impressive, I must say I wasn't expecting you guys to work together like that, without a word said between you even." The voice startled Sasuke, he was standing right behind him. 'Shit when did he get behind me' he managed to think, just as he was cuffed so hard to the side of his head that he was send spinning across the ground.

"But you're going to have to work harder than that to get the bells" the Jōnin continued, as he disappeared from sight and appeared behind his two teammates that was still standing next to each other after the attack on the clone. Ducking into a low sweep Kakashi kicked out the legs of both of them sending them tumbling painfully to the ground.

The three of them, leaped up and charged their sensei with renewed vigor.

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**Kakashi sitting in the forest of the Third Training Ground later that day.**

He had been impressed, and after several years he had finally found a team he deemed worthy of his tutelage.

When they had announced the team composition the previous day, he had been confused as to why he had been assigned the Hyūga heir. In his initial opinion he would rather have had someone with some book smarts to balance the hothead and the ninjutsu specialist out. But as the day had progressed he could see why she was put on the team with Naruto. The two of them worked together like cogs in a machine. He had been watching the training from a few angles through clones. They hadn't once seen or heard them communicate with each other in any way. Yet their attacks had been in complete synchronization and covering for openings on each other.

He had knew ahead of time that his team would consist of Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto.

The Uchiha was a given, he was the only one that could help him with his bloodline, when it eventually presented itself.

Naruto had been on his own request, The council had forced him to leave his Sensei's son alone while still a civilian. It had broken his heart to see how badly his Sensei's legacy had been treated over the years. He intended to make up for it, and to make up for the shortcomings that had some from the obvious sub-par treatment he had suffered from the teachers at the Academy. He was surprised at the level he had turned out to be at, his taijutsu skills were much better than what he had heard, but it also wasn't the standard taijutsu that had been taught at the Academy, so apparently he had someone teach him something outside of it. Kakashi vowed to himself to thank the person if he ever figured out who had been teaching him. He narrowed his eye slightly as a thought struck him, his style had been reminiscent of Jūken, but instead of using fingers to drive chakra into tenketsu, he was using palm strikes, with a frightening strength for a 12 year old. Wincing slightly as he recalled the memory from one of his clones as it had taken a straight hit to the shoulder.

Someone must have been pushing for Naruto and Hinata to be on the same team, someone that knew something about the two. Most likely the person that had taught them taijutsu, he hoped he could pressure Hiruzen-sama to disclose who. It was the only logical conclusion. He also hoped that Kurenai would forgive him for poaching her surrogate daughter.

All in all, he was happy with the team he had been given to work with. Both Naruto and Hinata had proven to be much better, faster and stronger with taijutsu than what his rapports from Iruka indicated. Of course this wasn't that surprising to be the case since they both displayed combat styles not taught at the Academy. He would have to take it up with Hiruzen-sama about the Academy forcing people to use a taijutsu style no matter how generic, if they already had familiarity with a technique that suited them better.

With Sasuke he had seen resourcefulness in using weapons and tools in combination with an impressive array of ninjutsu, while he didn't have the same amount of team coordination as the two others had displayed, he hope that he would grow into it after seeing how impressive the two were when they coordinated their attacks.

Kakashi sighed and cracked his neck, feeling a little worn out. They had pushed him much farther than he had assumed from kids straight out of the Academy, even with his self imposed handicaps, he hadn't expected to be pushed at all.

After he had repelled their first attack after the death of his clone, he stopped holding back quite as much as he had been. Cracking his back while stretching, he thought back to how Naruto had suddenly switched tactics and started the clone war. He had suddenly been rushed by a huge amount of 3 man clone groups, slowly driving him back, every once in a while, one of his new genin had mixed themselves into the groups to take advantage of the confusion caused. Hinata had almost caught him out with a Jūken strike towards his right shoulder. Sasuke had forced him to Kawarimi with a log to avoid getting singed by a gigantic fireball. While Naruto managed to land a hit, but not before he switched with a shadow clone.

They had managed to drive him into the forest and that when it started to go downhill for him. What the hell was with that forest, it was like the place itself had been out to kill him, could barely take two steps, before some sort of trap had been sprung or having to tread carefully, to avoid triggering some of the more dangerous looking ones. A rather ingenious triple layered trap had actually managed to swipe him in the lower back with a thick branch.

It had been the one that had finally ended the first part of the test. Getting hit by the trap had him take a step forward, instantly he had Naruto take a high kick towards his head while yelling out. Taking his hand up to block, he noticed too late the silent and lithe Hyūga jumping towards the bells, twisting in a feat of agility that would leave many contortionists jealous, past the kick he had snapped out to deter the young girl. Snagging both bells, immediately throwing one up in the air for Naruto to catch.

Sasuke had been the one to be tied to the center log while Hinata and Naruto had been given the bento's he had brought. They had done his test with flying colors technically, but he still wanted to see if they could get past Naruto's dislike for Sasuke. So he had tied Sasuke to the log explaining that after they had eaten they would do a small sparing session to determine the team leader. After he had forbidden them to share the food with Sasuke he had retreated into the wood. The two taijutsu specialists had shared a quick look and without ceremony immediately cut the rope holding Sasuke and allowed him some of the food off their portions. That had cinched it, they were the first group to pass the test to become his students.

"_Triple layered_" he breathed, remembering the previous day and the trouble he had with the forest click into place. He had been around looking at some of the traps and found himself admiring some of the simple ones, which had proven surprisingly efficient. A slight shiver went down his spine, at the thought of when he eventually taught them how to make their own explosive tags.

A future expert trapmaker, two bloodlines, overall high level of taijutsu through the Hyūga and his sensei's son, together with a strong ninjutsu offence through the Uchiha heir. This is going to be a frightening team, once they get out of D-rank hell and got some actual combat experience, along with life threatening situations to accelerate their growth.

He knew just how much progress stuff like that forced into a person, still he was glad that his team got to have an actual childhood and adolescence. The Third Shinobi World War had robbed him of his, forcing him into the battle field at the young age of 6.

Before they got into all that however, he was going to have to address several glaring issues with the team, besides the teamwork, which he was sure was a question of time not training.

Uchiha Sasuke's taijutsu was suffering from the same issues as his deceased teammate, probably something ingrained in the Uchiha as a whole. His taijutsu had been textbook, it was good, but far from the level of the two others. Anyone with a tiny amount of experience would have picked his defense apart in seconds. He was going to have to help him, so he didn't end up as his old teammate before his bloodline kicked in. Overall he thought the clan relied on the Sharingan too much, they had neglected certain areas of expertise, simply because they relied on their eyes to compensate for it.

His two taijutsu experts were in the opposite end of the spectrum of each other when it came to Chakra.

Uzumaki Naruto had as much control as trying to fill a glass of water under a large waterfall. He had noticed it when the clone war had started, it practically radiated off him while using the technique, pumping at least 3 times the amount needed to create the basic version of the clone and he had still produced close to a 100 clones during the test. While still remaining in peak combat condition. Once he got better control he was going to have to teach him more about the technique he was currently using for brute-force Kakashi knew he already knew about one aspect, one of the clones had spotted him and popped itself, and a few seconds later his genin had been on top of him again.

Hyūga Hinata had a incredible amount of control for her age, he knew that it control was probably beaten into the clan as a whole as soon as they could mould Chakra. Her reserves were very low however. It had been proven when she had hit the knee of his clone, the hit had been spot on, but the amount of Chakra hadn't been enough to actually pop the clone, only the sharp edges of the shuriken had been enough to get it to pop. It wasn't that she couldn't get it to pop, he was certain that if unimpeded, she could easily produce strikes capable of killing a shinobi. The Jūken was an incredibly Chakra intensive fighting style, with all swings expending Chakra. Hits as well as misses. He estimated that the young heir could probably deliver a couple of dozen hits that would be lethal, but she was rationing herself to keep fighting. Noticing how she in combat had been using her Byakugan only rarely, most likely due to the same problem.

He shook his head slightly, with some help to cover their shortcomings and some combat experience, they would soon be ready to become Chunin. Normally new Genins weren't ready for that for years. Hell if they managed to make up for it, and worked to just master the abilities they had now, the three of them would probably be Jōnin in under a handful of years.

Letting out a slight chuckle, he thought about Maito Gai's reaction if his new team would manage to make Chunin, before the team Gai had been training for a year.

Yes, he was going to have to make that happen. Just to watch the punishment Gai would put on himself.

He got up stretched his arms, then turned around to jump away and maybe go visit a certain stone. As he took a single step, a snap sounded in front of him, cursing to himself he ducked under a swinging branch. Half a second later he found himself on his back, landing painfully on a small rock. Right after the high branch had swung at him, a long and very flexible branch had swept out in the other direction hitting the back of his knees causing him to lose balance having ducked backwards to avoid the branch.

Looking up at the sky, he pulled out the little book he carried around.

'I'm just going to lie here until the pain of the embarrassment goes away' noting how he had literally been sitting in the trap the whole time without noticing. It was one of those times he wished, he could use both eyes without exhausting himself.

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**Same evening, at the Uchiha Main Compund**

The black haired prodigy was sitting in the hidden basement that contained the clans secret library. He was pouring over a few scrolls spread out on the table, trying to compare what he had seen today with the information the clan had collected on the Hyūga styles of fighting. It just wasn't making sense, she was the heir to the clan, why were her style different. The scrolls had descripted the style as rigid, hard but brutally efficient, with no wasted actions and using any opening created to strike devastating blows.

What he had seen today while outwardly looking like the Jūken described here, how she had actually used it had been very different. She had been moving with grace, and instead of blocking many of the blows, she had floated around them, snaking out counter strikes. Strikes that weaved through the defense instead of exploiting openings. Against a target that much stronger than them it was the right way to go about. Their Jōnin-sensei wasn't one to leave openings like that, the few openings he had tried to exploit had been to lure him to overextend with a disastrous outcome for him as the result.

His shoulder were still sore from getting thrown down into that trap on the forest floor. Which had triggered it, hitting him in the gut with a branch, causing him to get slammed into the tree behind him.

All those traps were definitely that dobe's work. He had been wondering, when he had set them up. Recalling the staggering amount of clones that had been running around. There probably were several clones running around in the forest, while they had been fighting in the clearing.

"Stupid clones" he grumbled with a hint of jealousy in his voice. After they had been done, he had swallowed his pride and asked the dobe if he would teach him the technique. Kakashi-sensei had intervened stating that the Kage Bunshin was a B-rank jutsu explicitly forbidden to teach to anyone below Jōnin. Explaining that creating even one clone at his current level would most likely kill him with Chakra exhaustion.

He slammed his hands into the table, yelling with rage "ONE CLONE, ONE, HE MADE A HUNDRED" was this really the difference between them, was he doomed to stand in the shadow of that orange moron. He vowed to search the library for information on these Uzumakis, obviously it had to be a bloodline, no random orphan would be strong enough to rival the Uchiha.

Still seething with rage, he recalled how the dobe had declared him a rival in school. He hadn't really take it seriously, the idiot was terrible in all classes and hadn't even graduated right together with them, only being able to get his Hitai-ate under what had been called extraordinary circumstances. He had been holding back, probably laughing behinds his back. It was infuriating.

He calmed himself down, it was usable. The guy that had proclaimed himself his rival, turned out to be an actual rival. He could use this, use it to become stronger. He'd do anything necessary to become stronger, even tolerate the dobe. _That man_ was still far, far ahead of him, he would need a rival and people to train with to become that strong, he was pushing the limit of growth he could attain on his own. So he would welcome them, and use them to attain his goal.

Their abilities had stunned him, how had they gotten so strong when they were using so much time on _stuff,_ he didn't have time for _stuff,_ not until he had killed _That man_. Once that was done, then he would have time for _reviving_ his clan.

He had gone off a tangent, bending back down towards the table pulling out a scroll he had been working on for a two years now. He had new entries for it today. He had started it following a certain day, and had slowly been growing with new techniques. While he wasn't fond of relying on the genius of someone that wasn't himself. He would take whatever that could help him get stronger. It had been the only thing he had respected about the dobe before today. The traps.

There was one other in his class that also recognized the skill and had directly asked the dobe to teach him. It was something he had never expected out of the lazy pineapple. Asking for work. It had piqued his interest, the lazy bastard never did anything without reason. If he had taken an interest, it would definitely be useful.

Unlike the pineapple, his dislike for the loudmouthed dobe had kept him from seeking him directly to become stronger, but had instead opted to write down all variations and trigger mechanisms (Many used against himself, to his chagrin). Some of the work he had seen since that day had been genius, bordering on insane in its intricacy. He couldn't believe some of the stuff he had done, but he supposed the dobe was an idiot savant and this was his area of expertise.

After today, he couldn't really call him that anymore, he clearly had several areas of expertise. It happened to be areas where he could use improvement, which pleased him to no end. More opportunities to grow stronger.

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**Naruto in his small apartment in the slums**

Naruto was lying in his bed, staring up the slightly buzzing fluorescent light in this ceiling. It had been a long day and he was completely worn out. Over the last two days since that night, he had been feeling dead tired, when he finally got to lie down. Something that hadn't happened before, ever. There were benefits to being this tired, it kept some of his terrible nightmares at bay. Sure they had tapered off over the last 3 years. He had expected them to come back, now that he finally understood the reason, to why he was having them.

He was a bit sad, he hadn't gotten to do his regular training today due to how exhausting it had been to actually get those bells. It had been worth it though, seeing the teme's face when he and Hinata-chan had dashed towards their new sensei. Their Jōnin-sensei had been holding back any idiot could see that, but he was still pleased with the progress they had shown. The result of their training.

The fact that he had managed to force their sensei into a few of his traps, and one of them had even hit him brought a smile to his face.

He got up and turned off the light, collapsing back onto his bed and was promptly out snoring away.

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**Academy Antics: The beginnings of a trap master.**

Naruto (Age 10) was walking down the hall towards the classroom with his hands behind his head and a huge shit eating grin on his face.

Today he would get revenge over Teme for hitting him in the back, causing him to face plant during practice earlier this week. Yesterday they had started on a new class, one that had piqued his interest. Advanced Trap making.

He had instantly seen the prank potential in this class and had for once, actually followed the class as the teacher had gone through the material covering the first lessons.

He had looked around during the class, and most had been looking incredibly bored. Except for the pineapple, the one guy, that was usually paying as little attention as himself. Had been following the class as well. He was going to have to show him what he had done, sure his fellow comrade in arms would appreciate his work.

Walking into the class, he wandered past the table where the pinkette and the blond gossip was trading barbs, leaning a bit towards then while saying in a low voice "Sasuke-teme said that he wanted to speak to you out near the tool shed." Instantly the two fan girls perked up looking at him. Both got up, shouting that he was obviously taking to her and not the other one as they raced out the room shoulder to shoulder, pushing each other.

Naruto walked over to the window with a clear view of the training ground where the tool shed holding the equipment for their taijutsu classes were kept.

He wave to the pineapple, motioning him to come to the window. A low "troublesome" was heard as he got out of his chair. Seeing the laziest guy in the class getting out of his chair, most of the class joined him at the window. Hinata-chan had found her usual spot right next to Naruto, looking out the window.

Down in the courtyard, Sasuke had just exited the tool shed, he had been on equipment duty today and was just finished putting everything away. Walking back towards the building he noticed a wire glinting in the sunlight, shaking his head he mumbled "Not going to get me that easily, dobe" and walked up to the wire, it was strung high. To get over it he would have to jump, not feeling up to it, he instead brought out a wire cutter from his tool pouch and cut it.

The taunt wire snapped up making a small cut on his hand, cursing as it drew a little blood, only too late realizing that the wire had been much too tight to be a normal tripwire he managed to get out a small "shit" before getting drenched in a large amount of water in the suspended tin trough that had been hidden in the leaves of the tree, the wire had been going to.

Kiba watching the whole thing barked out a small laugh at the sight.

It was a late autumn day and kinda cold, Sasuke quickly pulled off his jacket and shirt walking over to the sink that was placed near the tool shed. Attempting to wring out most of the water. As soon as he had reached the sink, the side door of the building slammed open.

Sakura and Ino had been sprinting all the way down here, both promptly letting out a squeal as they saw the shirtless Uchiha standing near the shed, dashing over towards him.

The squeal had drawn his attention. Eyes widening in a fear he hadn't felt the like since _that night,_ he turned away from the two bearing down on him and ran away from the as fast as he could.

Back up in the class room Kiba had collapsed of the floor winded from laughing so hard, even Shino had quirked an eyebrow which was as much of a reaction as you would ever get out of the stoic boy.

Shikamaru turned towards the mischievous blond. "Oi Naruto, you know that is going to be troublesome later, right?" Never being a stickler for formality, the young Nara hated honorifics. They were much too troublesome.

He had just turned towards him with a big grin plastered all over his face, to which he could only shake his head before returning to his seat sinking down into it making himself as comfortable as possible, content to watch the eventual fallout once the Uchiha had managed to double back towards the class. He had to admit, it had been a stroke of genius to use an obvious wire to hide the true purpose of the trap, and then letting the two fan girls lose on him.

Traps could probably save him a lot of work in the future, especially as he got more into his clan techniques, he could understand his father's insistence that he should pay attention to this particular class.

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**A/N: **Alright, that was the first chapter. It ended up containing a lot more deconstruction of what happened during the day the chapter was supposed to be about. I felt it necessary to point out a few key differences between this and the cannon. Besides the changes to Naruto and Hinata who will be differentiating from the cannon by quite a bit, moving further and further away as the story progresses.

Mainly I've changed Kakashi and Sasuke to be closer to how they are described and not how they are depicted in the cannon.

Kakashi is supposedly a genius who is smarter than Shikamaru only beaten by his father Shikaku. This is never shown right in the cannon. So compared to the cannon I've taken the liberty to give him a level in intelligence. While I'm not quite that clever myself, I hope I get him closer to how someone that smart is supposed to be.

Sasuke has likewise been given a level in intelligence compared to the cannon, he will be acting less on his feelings in this one, which in itself will create a lot of ripples across how everything plays out. In the cannon he is shown to be the one that has the best grades of the whole class (while Shikamaru could beat him, he doesn't due to being lazy), this makes it reasonable to assume that he is pretty damn clever and book smart. So I've shown him as such. His physical and ninjutsu abilities are compareable to the cannon but his intelligence will make him stronger than he would be at the current point in the cannon.

This makes him fairly balanced compared to the level in badass both Naruto and Hinata has been given due to events not yet shown (Expect some of them in Chapter 3 or 4)

In whole I was disappointed in how training in the cannon before the first C-rank missions were handled so that has been rectified as well. This means for everyone not just the 3 genin teams, every Shinobi will generally be stronger than the cannon counterpart so a certain degree.

You don't send out kids against life threatening situations before they have at least completed basic training.

That was what I wanted to address about this first chapter. The next one will step 2 days back in time and be about the final exam day and graduation.

It will be more about the two stars of this fanfic, Naruto and Hinata, and much less thinky thinky.

Academy Antics will be a recurring thing with small things that happened during their school days.

Feedback and reviews appreciated, but keep it constructive please, "This sucks" doesn't help me improve my writing.


	2. Chapter 2: Shadows of the Fox

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or any associated characters.

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**A/N:** Welcome to the second chapter of Sister Lost.  
We're not picking up where we left off in the first chapter but instead handling the two days before the first chapter, namely the day of the final exam and graduation, along with the orientation day.

Same thing as with the first Chapter: I do not have any beta readers so spelling, characterization and such are all on me, feel free to point out any and all glaring errors. Especially since English isn't my first language. I will try to avoid all the regular pitfalls, but it will be unavoidable that things slip through, feedback will allow me to fix mistakes and prevent future ones. So tear my grammar and spelling a new one if you find errors.

And now Ladies and gentlemen I give to you FLUFF. Well no, not really, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to open this chapter with an epic tease that doesn't really say anything at all :D

In general interaction between our two main characters outside of combat will probably veer into fluff country for a quick detour or two. If you don't want to read that stuff, well this is not the story for you, there is a reason the secondary genre for this thing is Romance.

* * *

**Chapter 2: Shadows of the Fox**

**Day of the final exams, classroom, exam in progress**

Hinata was nervous, fidiging in her seat. She weren't afraid of the test, she knew she could perform the ninjutsus needed for a passing grade, having practiced them many times over the last year.

She looked at the boy that made her nervous about the exam. The wild golden blond hair, those impossibly blue eyes. His trademark smile was present, but she knew that version of it. It had been present that day and it was the same now. It wasn't the real him, this was the mask that was put on when things weren't right.

She had a mask similar to it herself, but it hadn't been adorned in a long time, mainly because of him, because of the strength he provided her. He had been wearing the mask less often as well, but today it was back on.

She knew the problem, and there wasn't anything to do about it. She hadn't felt as powerless like she did now since 'that day'. 'That day' had been the first time since 'The Incident' where she felt that she suddenly had a purpose and a place in the world. Where she had saved him and he had saved her.

Now due to circumstances outside of their control they might be forced to spend a lot less time together. She wasn't sure what would happen, how he would react if it would go like they feared, like they knew it would go.

"Hyūga Hinata " She snapped out of her reverie, Iruka-sensei was motioning her to come to the front of the class for her test.

On the way down she decided that perhaps showing off a little would lift his spirit. As she stood up she created a Bunshin of herself that took the other way out of her row and walked down in front of Iruka-sensei with her. Dispelling the clone quickly, she put up her hands in the required seal "Henge".

As the small puff of smoke lifted a very confused looking Ino was standing in front of them, a small snicker was hear in the class due to how she had decided to represent her.

Iruka-sensei continued "Good, now Kawarimi", she dropped her Henge. Ino barely avoided being sprayed with the mouthful of coffee Iruka had just taken, as it was revealed that it was in fact the real Ino that was standing in front of the class and Hinata had switched places with Ino, having dropped the Henge and now sitting in her seat.

Kawarimi was a very powerful technique, there was a reason it was required to graduate. Iruka had however never seen a student being proficient enough forcefully replacing herself with another being before. The Chakra control alone was on par with what most Jōnin could handle. On top of that, a decent amount of Chakra was needed because inherent resistance the Chakra of the other person would pose. He looked at the young Hyūga, she looked a little pale, having probably used most of her Chakra for the stunt. It was impressive none the less.  
Iruka had never seen the Hyūga use much of any ninjutsu in the year he had been teaching the class, and was surprised that she had been holding back. Or more likely she hadn't felt the need to show off, being the quiet girl she was. On the way down she had been glancing at the blond trouble maker she had been sitting next to. Showing off for him most likely. He had the two class gossips sitting in the front row, and had heard all sorts of rumors around those two. Personally he felt that it seemed very early for some of the things being said to be true. They were after all only 12.

The following tests had gone past quickly. Kiba had transformed into a likeness of his dog, to jeers from the class that it was an improvement. It was finally Naruto's turn.

Naruto looked slightly ill at the prospect, as he went down in front of the class.

Iruka had been bracing himself, expecting the Oiroke no Jutsu. Instead Naruto had transformed into the Uchiha heir but looking like someone had beaten him to a pulp. Looking to the black haired boy, Iruka noted the scowl etched into the youth's features. That was going to have repercussions later. Still, it was better than that 'other' technique, the Hyūga had a positive effect on him it seemed.

Dispelling the transformation, Naruto then with a huge grin on his face replaced himself with Iruka's table, causing everything on it to fall to the floor. Iruka was about to yell at him, but stopped himself figuring that he would let it slide on this last day of school.

Hinata had a hard time watching, it was finally time for what she had been dreading. Watching intensely as the blond boy ran through the hand signs for Bunshin. Two clones appeared, but they looked off. Something was terribly wrong with it, with a shudder both the clones exploded violently into huge plumes of smoke that quickly filled the classroom.  
It had happened, that was it, he wouldn't graduate together with her. As the smoke cleared Naruto-kun was nowhere to be seen in the classroom. She wanted to run off and find him.  
She couldn't leave. She knew her father would be attending the ceremony where they were handed their Hitai-ate in a little over 20 minutes. As the sole heir to the main branch of the Hyūga, she couldn't be seen to do something as unseemly as ditching a ceremony the Hokage would be attending.  
Instead she activated her Byakugan in hopes of finding out where he would be running off to, so she could find him after the ceremony.

He hadn't moved far, she could see him sitting outside on the swing behind the building. The regret and pain of not graduating was painted in his face. He gave a slight nod. Widening her eyes, he had known she would look for him. Understanding why he was sitting there instead of running off. He was staying to see her reach the first step towards their goal. By officially becoming a kunoichi.

Smiling a little at the sentiment, she wasn't sure if she wanted him to see it, knowing how much staying around would pain him, when he was doomed to spend another year in the Academy.

* * *

**Naruto, sitting on the swing behind the Academy an hour later**

Naruto was at a loss on what to do, he had seen Hinata-chan get her Hitai-ate. He was really happy for her, at the same time, the fact that they could no longer spend most of the day together, hurt him like nothing else had in many years.

He hadn't even had the chance to talk to her, before her father had dragged her off towards their clan compound.

He could hear footsteps on the grass in front of him, moving towards him.

Naruto looked up at the approaching assistant teacher Mizuki approaching him.  
"Naruto-kun, I know of a way you can still graduate" Naruto snapped his head up staring at the young sensei.

* * *

**Hours later, in the Hokages office**

Hiruzen was looking at the young boy that had requested an audience with him, following the exam earlier. Naruto not graduating was going to cause him quite a bit of trouble. He was currently looking at the boy contemplating what to do.

Suddenly Naruto shouted "Henge", in his place was a young buxom blond woman, standing naked in a pose barely covered by the smoke from the transformation. It caught him off guard, and in a spray of blood from his nose he topped backwards off the chair and hit his head on the wall behind him knocking him out.

Naruto dropped the transformation and hurried over to the unconscious old man, gingerly checking that he was still alive. Before fishing a set of keys out of the old man's robe. Unlocking the other door in the office, Naruto went down the stairs into the large room containing a large scroll sitting on a pedestal behind a barrier.

Pulling out the seal Mizuki had given him, he placed the seal on the barrier, nothing happened. Then suddenly the barrier wavered a little and blinked out of existence.

He quickly grabbed the scroll and set out through the window, out towards the forest where Mizuki had instructed him to wait for a proctor to appear to confirm he had indeed passed the test.

Naruto arrived at the clearing, frowning a little, this was an odd spot for an exam. He decided to dot the i and set out to trap the edge around the clearing. If he could show off his trap skills there was a higher chance of him passing.

20 minutes had passed, he had finished up trapping the immediate area, and was starting to grow a little bored. Where the hell was that proctor anyways. After 5 minutes he had become restless and decided to look at the scroll.

Opening it slightly, he noticed instructions for a jutsu. "This must be the reward for managing the special exam" he muttered to himself, and started following the instructions on the scroll.

* * *

**Iruka, 1 hour later, traveling through the forest**

Where the hell was he, the alarm had gone out 30 minutes ago, Naruto had attacked Hokage-sama. He had used that stupid jutsu again, this wasn't a malicious assault. The restricted scroll had been stolen. The scroll had been under some heavy duty wards, this wasn't something an Academy student would be capable of pulling off on his own.  
Someone had to have been helping him, or more likely, manipulating him. It wouldn't be hard, not in the state of mind he would be in after today. If only he had been able to find him earlier, after he had finished up with the ceremony and done his paperwork pertaining to the new genin, he had set out to find the boy. Not being able to find him he had looked to another avenue.  
Iruka knew why the clones had exploded like that. He had spend the afternoon with the Hokage trying to figure out how to let Naruto pass. Naruto wouldn't ever be able to create a normal Bunshin. Even a tiny tickle of Chakra, from Naruto's point of view, would completely overload the technique, causing all the excess to be released as smoke.

He had to find him first, most of the Chūnin out looking as well as a few of the Jōnin hated the child, and might do something rash, like killing him, if they found him first.

Iruka knew of Naruto's fondness of the forested areas close to the part of where he lived. He had gone straight to that area, but the forests around there was a big area.

A "WOOO" was heard in the direction he was traveling. Iruka sped up.

* * *

**Naruto, middle of the clearing**

He had yelled out in joy after being able to perform the technique. Now he knew how the test was supposed to make him pass. It had contained some information on a distinct Bunshin jutsu. One that he was actually able to perform, he hadn't mastered it yet he knew, since he couldn't get it to make just one clone. It would be enough to pass and the traps would seal the deal.

A loud snap and then the yelp from a person, who had just been whipped by a thin branch, was heard to the right of him. He quickly made a few clones. turning towards the sound. Yelling "So proctor-sensei, do I pass?!"

Iruka stumbled out of the bush, straightened and then walked up to him. "Pass what?" Naruto looked up at him "The Special Test, what else? Look I can make Bunshin, that means I pass, right?" Iruka had gone wide eyed next to him. "Special Test? Naruto who told you there was a special test?"

"I did" Mizuki was standing on a branch close to the clearing. Mizuki un-slung one of the large shuriken he was carrying on his back and hurled it towards the pair before jumping to the ground.

Naruto reacted to the shuriken first, he pushed Iruka away and did a windmill backwards, slapping his free hand up into the middle of the shuriken, stopping it dead in its tracks.

Mizuki landed on the edge of the forest, before he had time to react, a branch swiped him in the back sending him tumbling to the ground. Before he could get back on his feet Naruto was standing over him.  
Naruto was emitting a huge amount of killing intent. His face was twisted into a snarl showing Canines that that was much too large for a human. His eyes glowing a faint red in the darkness of the forest.

"No, get away from me demon" Mizuki pleaded, trying to scramble away from the boy. "I TRUSTED YOU SENSEI" Naruto was overcome by the rage and in a single motion, swiped the large shuriken at Mizuki, severing his head from his body with one of the large tines.

Naruto then fell to his knees in front of the decapitated corpse of the former assistant teacher, he had been splashed by some of the blood pumping out of the corpse, as the heart continued to beat a few more times. Covered in blood, kneeling in the pool that had been created on the ground. Naruto broke down.

"I-I killed him" he managed to get out while his body was trembling from the adrenalin high and the aftereffects of the rage. "I couldn't stop myself" his head turned towards his sensei, looking Iruka in the eyes with a pleading look. "It was like I was-was someone else, I-I don't know what to do sensei, please help me"

Iruka took out a flare from his pocket and fired it off, then walked over to his student, helping him stand up and move away from the corpse. Four ANBU arrived as he had moved a few feet away, they had weapons drawn and was moving towards Naruto. Iruka held up his free arm, while supporting Naruto with the other. "There will be none of that, Mizuki manipulated Naruto, and was killed like the traitor he was as a result. I am under the direct order of the Hokage. I will bring Naruto to Hiruzen-sama, and we will take it from there. You Four dispose of the body, bring the head to the Intelligence Division and guard the scroll in the Hokage Tower until a new ward can be set up"

* * *

**45 minutes later at the Hokage Tower**

Naruto had been cleaned up and lend a set of clean clothes. He was sitting in a chair in front of the Hokage, still rattled by what had happened. Iruka was standing next to the chair looking between the Hokage and Naruto.

Hiruzen finally spoke. "Naruto, what happened today wasn't you fault. As a student you're supposed to be able to completely trust your teachers. We do not fault you for doing, what you did." The Hokage's eyes softened and his features settled into a frown. It was too soon for someone to deal with taking a life. He hadn't been prepared. They had a class about it in the Academy, but the real preparation for the harsh realities of being a shinobi, was to fall to the Jōnin in charge of the students over the initiation period new genin teams faced. Now he had been driven to it before being ready.  
Then there were the issue with the influence from the Kyuubi that had been the final driving force, using his rage to control him. Letting out a sigh, Hiruzen straightened in his seat. "Naruto, there is a lot we have to tell you"

Hiruzen started with telling about the night the Kyuubi had attacked Konohagakure, how the fourth Hokage, had fought for his life to protect the village, but being unable to kill the monster. Forced to seal it into him. How he was the one thing that kept the village safe from that monster. How it might have been what had driven him over the edge and killing the traitor.

Iruka told him about his parents, how he had hated him, when he found out, he was going to have to teach him in the future. How after meeting him, and seeing him interact with others, had convinced him that he could never be that monster people claimed he was.

"Naruto, you weren't prepared for the eventuality of taking a life not yet. It's too late for us to do anything about it. There is only one thing to do, and that is moving forward. Don't dwell on it, don't think about what could have been done in another way. Doing that will only eat away at your soul. Mizuki was a traitor to the village, treason only has one punishment, death. You did your duty as a shinobi of Konoha."  
Hiruzen stood up and walked around the table over to Naruto. Handing him a Hitai-ate.  
"Congratulations of becoming a genin."

Iruka put a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "I'm proud of you Naruto, it was your reaction that kept us both from harm." Iruka studied the Golden haired boy, he sure had come a long way over the year he had been his student. Even now as he was sitting there, Iruka could see he was digesting everything that happened this night, and would pull out okay once he had mulled everything over.  
He crouched down in front of the boy and looked him in the eyes. "With experiences like this, talking about it always helps, once you have thought everything through and if you still need to talk to someone about it, know that I will always be willing to lend you an ear, for this or anything else."

Naruto slumped in the chair, feeling worn out from everything that had happened. Learning the Kage Bunshin, the aftereffect of the fox's power and the down after the adrenaline high from his first life or death situation. He got up and looked at his former sensei and jiji-sama. "Thanks for everything, I need some time with this. I'm going to go home and try to sleep."

As Naruto was on the way out Iruka reminded him that Orientation and team presentation was at 10 the following morning.

After Naruto had exited his office. Hiruzen looked at Iruka, smiling at him lighting his pipe. "So he graduated afterall, well that is a load off my mind." Iruka looked sceptically at the Hokage. "How so?" Hiruzen chuckled a little "Now I will be able to fulfill the two team placement requests, there were for him."

* * *

**Hinata, 7:30 in the morning, racing through a forest at the edge of Konoha**

She needed to see him. There had been a huge uproar in their compound yesterday. The Hokage had requested several members of the clan to help with the retrieval of a person and a stolen artifact.

Hinata had observed the others while they were selecting people to join the hunt. Reading the lips of the people as they briefed the people that were to join the search, she had discovered they were to hunt Naruto. To her relief, the whole thing had been called off, before the hunting teams got to leave the compound.  
She knew that many in her clan didn't approve of Naruto and would try to hurt him if given the chance. She would stop such nonsense once she was the Clan Head, but until then there wasn't anything she could do about such attitudes.

She was racing towards their spot, desperately needing to talk to him, to find out what had happened. She was afraid for him, what if he wasn't there, had been arrested or... She shook her head, that wasn't a line of thought she wanted to follow. She was terrified of what she might do if something were ever to happen to him. The last person in the world she truly cared for.

She reached the clearing, the place where they had come to understand each other over the years, since the first encounter there 3 years ago.

He was sitting there, looking at the grass. She felt a huge wave of relief, nothing had happened to him. Jumping down to the ground and walking into the clearing.

He was wearing a Hitai-ate, "HE HAS PASSED" ran through her mind. She could barely contain her elation. Moving a little faster towards him, almost ready to pounce towards him once she was in the clearing.

The blond boy looked up, as she went through one of the small bushes, lining the edge of the small clearing. He locked eyes with her. Causing her to stop in her tracks. He had that look in his eyes. The one from 3 years ago, the one that shone with pain.

She recovered quickly and slowly made the way over to the large tree he was sitting against. Without saying anything, she instead sat down next to him, shoulder to shoulder. Content to sit in silence until he was ready to say anything. It was after all how it worked. How they both had been there for each other over the last three years.

They sat in silence for half an hour before he lifted his head from staring at the grass.  
"I killed a man" fear and pain evident in the boys voice. She turned her head and looked into his blue eyes. encouraging him to continue.

He related to her everything that had happened with Mizuki, she shook her head with a faint smile on her lips about him using that technique to knock out the Hokage. She knew he was holding something back from the story, killing a man in anger didn't seem like him. But didn't press the issue, once he was ready he would probably relate the missing pieces of the puzzle.

They sat in silence after he was done with the story. Just enjoying the morning as the sun rose higher in the sky warming the area.

It was nearing the time for the orientation and team assignment. She got up and stretched a little, hitting the tree with one of her hands she let out a little curse under her breath. Naruto heard it and let out a little chuckle. Standing up as well.  
"We better hurry, there is only a few minutes until it starts" his voice back to normal, she gave a little smile watching him bound towards the edge of the clearing in direction of the Academy. Then set off at full speed towards him, passing him by before he had reach the edge. "No fair" was heard as she entered the forest with the sound of the boy scrambling through the trees behind her.

* * *

**Naruto and Hinata, at the Academy**

Standing outside the door for their old classroom, Naruto was hesitant to go through it. Hinata took his hand and gave it a slight squeeze. Flashing him a smile.

In that moment the door opened, Ino about to walk out of it. Hinata swore to herself "Damn it, it was every single time, this is going to feed the gossip of the day." She didn't really care about gossip, but it was starting to grate on her, them being the subject of it most of the time.

Releasing his hand she wandered past Ino narrowing her eyes into a slight glade as she went past her. Naruto shrugged and followed her into the class.

Ino stood there with a grin plastered on her face, having stuff to talk with 'The Forehead' about today that didn't involve insulting each other.

Naruto was walking up to their usual seats. "Oi moron what are you doing here, you didn't graduate." He turned to glare at Kiba. Then flashed a huge grin and flicked the Hitai-ate on his forehead with a finger, then took his seat.

The entire class broke out in whispers. Not knowing what to make of it when he had graduated after failing the final exam.

Ino had returned to the class, and said loud enough for everyone to hear it. "My dad rushed to work suddenly last night." The class went silent, everyone was looking at Naruto. They all knew Ino's father Inoichi worked for the Intelligence Division, there was only one reason a Yamanaka would be needed outside of working hours. The class exploded in gossip, trying to piece together what had happened last night, several ANBU and Jōnin had been seen moving quickly around the town last night.

Iruka entered the class, sat down his coffee and told them to quiet down.

Kiba had his hand in the air. Iruka paused for a moment and nodded to Kiba.  
"Why does Naruto have a Hitai-ate? He didn't graduate with us yesterday."

Iruka studied the class, he supposed it would have been unavoidable for them to bring it up. He looked quickly at Naruto with a bit of concern. Naruto hadn't approached him about what had happened yesterday like he had hope and he wasn't sure if it was a good idea to bring it up after all the boy had been through yesterday. Naruto just sad there with a grin on his face and gave him a small nod. Iruka looked to the girl sitting next to Naruto, well he supposed he had confided in someone after all.

"Naruto was graduated and instated as a shinobi of the village after performing admirably for the good of the village under extraordinary circumstances last night." He of course wouldn't go into details about it.

The class was once again buzzing with everyone talking about last night, Naruto had been involved in whatever had happened.

Iruka shot them a glare and told everyone to be quiet once more. He then went on to blab about what an honor it was to be a shinobi for Konohagakure. How they would inherit 'The Will of Fire' a speech they had heard a million times, as Iruka would bring it up, whenever he had the chance.

He finally came to the part they had been waiting for. "I will now announce the teams". Two people entered the classroom.  
A young woman wearing a mesh armor blouse covered in what looked like a giant bandage. Hinata gave a small wave as she entered the classroom, receiving a smile and a small nod in return.  
Behind her walked a tall man with black hair and beard with an unlit cigarette in his mouth.

The door remained open, Iruka waited a minute and then walked over and closed it. Turning to the class. "These are two of the Jōnin in charge of the three teams that will be making up the graduating class, Kurenai Yūhi and Sarutobi Asuma. The third Jōnin will show up later, probably."

Iruka walked back over to the table. "Team Kurenai will be Aburame Shino, Haruno Sakura and Inuzuka Kiba."

Ino elbowed Sakura in her side. "Ha you won't be on the team with Sasuke-sama, instead you get bug boy and the dog." Sakura shot Ino a venomous glare.

Kurenai Yūhi looked at her new genin team. She was sad that she didn't get to have Hinata on her team. She had been like a daughter to her since she on request from Hyūga Hiashi, 5 years ago had helped her train, whenever the Head of the clan was too busy. They didn't spend as much time together anymore, Yūhi had requested she be placed on her team, she would have to track down Kakashi sometime later this week and hurt him. "Alright kids, follow me outside and we will head to our training ground."

After Kurenai had exited the class. Iruka announced the second team "Team Sarutobi will be Akimichi Chōji, Nara Shikamaru and Yamanaka Ino." Ino swore under her breath. She had know the two others all her life and was fine with being on team with them, but she had still hoped, she would have been on team with Sasuke.

Asuma looked at his team, smiled a bit at them being the same combination as their parents them motioned them to follow him. "We're heading outside, you're not allowed to smoke in this damn building."

Iruka turned to the 3 students still sitting in the room. "Well the three of you are on the same team. Your Jōnin-sensei will be Hatake Kakashi, he has been dalayed." Yeah right. "He will probably show up later, just wait here, I have to go take care of some things"

Naruto jumped up for his seat, pointing wildly at Iruka "Ahhh, ahhhhhhh! There was that word again probably! What do you mean probably, he is our new sensei shouldn't he be here already?" Iruka waved him off. "Kakashi will show up, when he shows up, now excuse me" as he went out the door.

Naruto slumped back into his chair, looking at Hinata who had let out a slight giggle, when he had jumped up waving his arm in the air.

20 minutes had passed, their new sensei still hadn't shown up. Naruto was getting restless and couldn't sit still in his seat. Hinata was watching him with an amused smile. She knew that in a moment Naruto would stand up and something would happen. The boy had entirely too much energy. Not that she minded.

Naruto jumped out of his seat and went down to the door, humming slightly, while looking around and at the door. He then reached into the tool pouch on his side.

40 minutes later the door opened. Kakashi took a quick step into the class avoiding the falling bucket. He knew that Naruto was a notorious prankster and had expected something like this. Taking the long stride into the class however made him trigger a tripwire. He jerked his head backwards to avoid the two sticks that was scissoring down towards his head, he avoided getting him by the sticks but didn't avoid getting a face full of chalk, as the two blackboard sponges tied to the ends hammered together. Stumbling back a small step, he then hit the back of his head on the bucket, still suspended in the air by wires. Muttering under his breath he then turned to his students "We are going to the roof." Turning and taking a step while ducking under the bucket. He planted his foot into some contact glue he had stepped over when taking the stride in to avoid the bucket. Not having noticed the glue he took another step and promptly face planted.

Naruto was laughing hard and then bounded down jumping over the downed Jōnin, racing towards the roof. Hinata had gotten up as well giggling, a little at the show he had put on for her. Gingerly stepping over their sensei who still hadn't gotten up.

Sasuke let out a small "ha, moron" and then got up and walked out slowly, sidestepping Kakashi as he was picking himself off the floor trying to free his sandal.

* * *

**Sasuke, in the stairway to the roof.**

Sasuke opened the door out to the roof where they were to meet up. His eyes instantly locked onto Naruto that was half lying/half sitting on the floor next to the bench looking disheveled. With the Hyūga heir straddling him.

The instantly snapped their heads around to him and quickly made to stand up. Kakashi appeared on the railing on the other side of them. Looking at the two.

Sasuke thought they looked slightly guilty, brushed themselves off, and they sat down on the bench, Hinata had sat down all the way at the right end of it. The blond sitting down entirely too close almost pushing her off it.

* * *

**Kakashi, sitting alone on the roof 15 minutes later.**

He giggled a little at catching the two doing 'something', it was almost like chapter 24 in the Icha Icha book he was currently reading. He shook his head, clearing his head of those thoughts, that was an association that wasn't proper about two kids that had barely started puberty.

Still, he hoped that wouldn't get in the way of the team, they had caught him off guard again however. He had to admire, that they knew each other well enough to pull it off.

He had been asking them about their likes, dislikes, dreams and aspirations. Sasuke had gone first and had mentioned his goal of killing a 'certain someone'. Kakashi knew what that was about, but left it alone. If revenge could be a driving force for his development, until he grew out of such a notion, so be it.

It had then been Hinata's turn. "My likes are: Spending time with a certain someone and getting stronger. I dislike Jerks, and one day I will be the Hokage" Kakashi was thrown off guard by what she said. She had been spending entirely too much time with Naruto if those where her goals.

Turning to Naruto: "My hobbies are flower pressing, my likes are spending time with a certain someone and getting stronger, my dream is one day I will be a strong clan leader" Sasuke had sniggered at the hobby.  
The dream had thrown them both for a loop. Sasuke was narrowing his eyes at Naruto looking to be in deep thought. Kakashi was looking at him, wondering exactly how much the blond knew about his parents.

They were both pulled out of their thoughts as Hinata broke down laughing loudly, with Naruto giggling. Hinata then tumbled off the bench.

In a small puff of smoke Naruto was revealed on the floor. With the Naruto on the bench forming a quick sign and turned into Hinata in a puff of smoke.

They had Henged into each other since they got to the roof. He hadn't noticed anything, they had each other's mannerism down to a T. Kakashi hadn't seen transformations that good in over a dozen years.

He had been pranked once by the wife of his sensei, who had posed as him for half a mission, because he had been home sick after trying an experimental dish his wife had made.

* * *

**Naruto and Hinata, in their spot in the forest**

They were both complete worn out, and more than a little sore. Naruto was nursing his shoulder which had hit a rock, as they had tumbled to the ground.

When they had caught their breath, the shoot each other a look. They hadn't mentioned their other goal to their new sensei.

The promise he had made her a couple of years ago, what they had been working towards since then. If they managed to fulfill the goal at some point in the future. There would be huge consequences. This was the stuff that started wars. They would have to be smart about it, and no-one could know. When the time came they had to take the chance. They would have to work even harder to attain their goal, so they could follow through on it when it presented itself.

* * *

**Academy Antics: Revenge?! on Iruka**

Naruto(Age 11) was sitting in him seat smiling to himself. He was going to get revenge today after having detention all of last week.

Iruka had entered the classroom with his usual coffee, he immediately stepped up to the blackboard and started telling about the Will of Fire. After the lecture he went to sit down at his table. To find the papers he was to hand out to the class.

As he sat down on the chair it lowered itself. He grabbed the handle to raise the chair back up into a proper height while staring at the blond in the middle row that was beaming at him.

The handle came off, he took it up in front of him. There was a wire attached to the handle. Eyes widening, he took a step away, but too late. The bottom drawer in the table sprang open with a small *twip* and nailed him in the shin.

He looked down to his shin yelping in pain, as he saw a small black ball rolling rapidly towards him inside the drawer. It hit the end of the drawer and then promptly exploded on a cloud of smoke. Iruka spend the next 10 minutes wheezing having inhaled some of the chili laced smoke.

Then told Naruto he could spend the rest of the class in the hall way.

Surprisingly Hinata got up and followed him out towards the hall. Iruka stopped her before she went outside. Asking her what she was doing. Quickly retorting "You shouldn't punish someone by denying them their education, so I'm joining him in protest."

Rolling his eyes, he had to agree with her and he called Naruto back in. "You're instead serving detention the next two weeks."

Making their way back to the table, Naruto leaned close to Hinata. "Gee, thanks for that." She looked at him fluttering her eyes and flashed a mischievous smile. "That's for forgetting about yesterday, besides you could never stay mad at me." Well she had a point there, he shrugged and sat down.

* * *

**A/N**:

So, that was the second chapter, hadn't really expected to finish it within 24 hours of the first one with Christmas and all. But here it is.

We had a good deal of angst in this one, don't fret. There won't be much of that, since I'm not that kind of writer. It was needed in this to expand on just what Naruto and Hinata are to each other. And I humbly apologize for it. They are young, on the verge of becoming teenagers, so we cannot be completely rid of it.

We also got to see how the two have rubbed off on one another (No, not like that, get your mind out of the gutter) With Naruto being a bit more tempered and Hinata more mischievous.

This concludes the prelude. We're now going into the story arcs. The first arc will not have anything or at least very little to do with the cannon.

The timeline with all arc points I've planned is rather large, so strap your selves in people, we're in it for the long haul.

The next arc is called Training. We will be follow all the shinobi and kunoichi of the 3 teams.

I hope you will all enjoy the arc, but unfortunately I doubt the first chapter of it will go online before the 25th. Would take a Christmas miracle to have time to proof read it on Christmas eve's day (The day, we here in Denmark celebrate Christmas)


	3. Chapter 3: Training Day

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or any associated characters.

* * *

**A/N:** Welcome to the third chapter of Sister Lost.

**NOTE**: I have added more to the end of this chapter since it was posed on the 25th.

I've been into fanfiction for like 14 days, made this account 48 hours ago (at time of writing this) so I could start leaving reviews. Got struck by inspiration right after creating the account, and here I am 11k words later after subtracting the Author notes, slaving away on the third Chapter. Hope you will all enjoy the things to come.

Wow this turned out to be a time consuming chapter to write. I had an idea of introducing an extra overarching plot with this chapter. Had even finished it yesterday (the 24th) then I was working on what it would bring to the timeline and I found that it would lead to massive power imbalances and I decided to scrap that particular plot and delete the whole chapter to rewrite it.

I'd like to thank the people who have been leaving reviews so far. Especially **1Waylander** for the detailed feedback so I can continue to improve.

You know the drill: I do not have any beta readers so spelling, characterization and such are all on me, feel free to point out any and all glaring errors. Especially since English isn't my first language. I will try to avoid all the regular pitfalls, but it will be unavoidable that things slip through, feedback will allow me to fix mistakes and prevent future ones. So tear my grammar and spelling a new one if you find errors.  
Been getting way more hits on just the first two chapters than I had expected as a first time author, hope you guys have been enjoying it so far.

And with that onwards to the Story arc, Ladies and Gentlemen I give you: Training.

This takes place right after Chapter 1.

* * *

**Chapter 3: Training Day**

**Hinata, 5:30 in the morning the next day, Hyūga compound.**

Hinata was looking up at her ceiling. She had dragged herself into bed early because Naruto had worn her out. Normally she wasn't much of an early riser when she didn't have to. Going to bed that early had caused her to wake with the sun coming up. Being much too excited about the day to go back to sleep.

Today was the day; they would be taking the second step towards the goal. The first step culminated yesterday, when they officially had become active genin.

They had gotten a strong sensei. In a rare attempt to communicate with the glaring statue that was her father, she had asked him about Hatake Kakashi. He was known as the man with the 1000 jutsu, had been active as a shinobi since the age of five and even becoming a Jōnin at just thirteen.  
That had meant he had been a Jōnin for half his life, and for longer than she had been alive. The test yesterday had shown her; just how far off they were from here they needed to be.

He had taken advantage of openings in her stance she didn't know were there. Kakashi-sensei was definitely a person that could help them progress forward.

Gathering some stuff, she headed to the bathroom to get ready for the day. With any luck Naruto, being the ball of energy he was, would be up from excitement as well and they could go a round before heading out to the training ground.

* * *

**Naruto, 5:30 in the morning, their regular spot**

Naruto had awoken earlier with his new sensei's words running through his mind. "Tomorrow we will start training to get a program worked out for how to improve yourself. The Academy training is too basic, you will need much improvement before ready for anything harder than D-rank missions" Hearing that they weren't even ready for C-rank missions any time soon had grated a little on him. They would need to get stronger fast then, so get past D-rank. Hinata-chan had told him that C-rank missions and higher was the only way to get actual combat experience.

Dodging left, Naruto looked at the clone attacking him. He was trying to work out how to have them assisting in training. Hinata had quickly pointed out, if he learned what the clones knew when they popped, he may be able to use them to get stronger.

They had tried a ton of stuff with them after the orientation had ended two days ago.

He had sent one to the library to study. That was a total failure. When the clone had popped after reading a book he had gone completely unresponsive for several minutes, freaking out Hinata-chan. Since he usually didn't stop moving in the middle of things, he had come to himself sore and slightly dizzy since Hinata-chan had been shaking him in panic. Afterwards he had about as much knowledge of the book, as if he had taken it and flipped the pages as fast as possible.

He had let a few of them spar, but they kept popping each other, and was generally useless since he strong enough that a blocked swing would still do enough damage to pop it.

So far, he had only found two uses.

Having a clone attack him while he dodged, this had turned out to be efficient at pointing out openings in his taijutsu. He could then work with that to try to close those holes. It was far from having an actual sparring partner, but it was better than training without.

The other he had noticed during the test, he had been attacking Kakashi-sensei, and 10 clones had been watching, waiting for an opening. When Kakashi had put him to the ground all the clones had seen what had happened from multiple angles. It had helped his experience of the encounter showing him exactly when he had overextended and had his offence shut down.

He had tried doing the same later in the afternoon, but had been forced to drop it, since Hinata-chan had found it extremely creepy to be watched like that. Even after he said it would help him do better next time, she had been shot the suggestion down.

At that moment, the clone had gotten past his defense and he was sent spinning towards the ground. "Damn it, my taijutsu still has a long way to go." Rubbing his side absently, he got up and dispelled the clone.

Kakashi-sensei had completely picked his offence apart yesterday and he had done so with one hand. There was much work to be done. Their new sensei could help them refine their skills considerably, on top of the eventual combat experience they would get.

There was still four hours until he had to get to the Third Training Ground. Sigh to himself he dropped to the ground, and started doing push-ups.

1427, 1428, 1429. He heard leaves rattling, stopping as he looked up at Hinata-chan as she exited the tree line.

"Good morning Naruto-kun" she beamed at him as she moved into the clearing. Plopping down on the ground next to him. "Couldn't sleep either, huh?" Naruto rolled onto his back and sat up half way. Looking at the blue hair girl, he shrugged slightly and then dropped back down onto his back. "We're going to be working harder from here."

They sat for a while just relaxing, there was no point in exerting themselves just yet, and today was promising to be a hard day. Hinata finally sat up on the ground. "We still have a little over 3 hours before we have to go. Perhaps we should do something?" "Well" Naruto said with a grin plastered on his face. "I do have a few suggestions on what we could do"

* * *

**Sasuke, 10:20, the Third Training Ground**

Sasuke was having a déjà vu. It was now 20 minutes past their meeting time. Neither those new teammates of his or his sensei had shown up. He would have to go out and get some sealing scrolls to carry some of his library around, giving him something to do while waiting. If this were to become a regular thing, he would probably need several scrolls to get him through the next few weeks at this rate.

The forest shook, a tree toppled in the distance followed by a Naruto that seemed to be flying out of the tree line. The blur of orange impacted with the ground, bounced a few times before skidding to a halt in front of the posts.

Sasuke hung his head in defeat. "Moron" He looked down at the dobe. "What the hell were you doing?" The blue eyes locked with his, the blonde's face split in two in a grin. "I totally meant to do that, damn it."

The Hyūga heir broke the tree line, next to the fallen tree. Yelling loudly while sprinting at them "Warn me when that is about to happen." The blonde flashed a quick look of fear and whispered to him. "She is going to kill me."

Naruto got up and walked towards the furious blue haired girl. "Look, I-I didn't know that was about to happen, you know I don't have any control of that yet, I didn't mean to hit you like that. I'm sure it will wash right out." Naruto had flashed her a half smile, she shook her head. "Okay, I forgive you just this time, but that is the second time you've done that, you have to warn me when that is about to happen."  
The Uchiha heir's right eye twitched a bit, what the hell had those two been doing in the forest.

"Yo... What happened to the tree over there?" Sasuke almost fell off the post he was sitting on. He swore to himself, how the hell had Kakashi-sensei managed to get besides them like that again.

"Where the hell were you sensei?" Sasuke looked at the blonde who had shouted at their sensei. "And where the hell were you dobe?" He was flashed a goofy grin as the blonde turned around and pointed towards the fallen tree. "Just over there."

Kakashi shook his head at his students. There was much to do still before they were a real team. This was going to be a long day; there was much to be done.

* * *

**Kakashi, the previous evening, Main house, Hyūga compound**

Kakashi had been led to the main house by an indifferent looking young boy, who by the looks of it was of the branch family. Kakashi had worked together with many members of the clan during the Third Shinobi World War. Common for them was the branch members would use their Hitai-ate or bandages to cover their foreheads. While all the members of the main branch, would proudly display their seal less forehead. He could not interfere in clan business, but he still hated how the branch members were treated.

He had come here because he needed answers; parts of his team had training, which they had not received at the Academy. He needed to find the sensei responsible.

He was lead into a study where the Clan Head was sitting in front of a table covered in scrolls. He turned around after Kakashi had taken a seat. "Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to see me, Hyūga-sama." The Clan Head in front of him frowned a little then smiled. "You don't have to be so formal Kakashi-san; after all you saved my brother's life during the war." Kakashi blinked, and he could suddenly see it, he looked like an older version of Hizashi. They had been working in a squad to sabotage supply lines near the end of the war. They had only narrowly escaped an ambush by the Iwa when Kakashi had taken out the leader creating a rout in their ranks, providing an opening to break away from the combat.

"Forgive me; I wasn't aware that Hizashi was your brother." The silver eyes searched him "Hizashi was my twin brother, I'm sure you're aware of the fate he met 5 years ago"  
Kakashi had been sadden greatly by the news of his old comrade's death.

"Now I'm sure you're not here to reminiscent about the old days. I assume this has something to do with you finding yourself the teacher of my daughter." Kakashi looked at the stoic man sitting in front of him; his voice had softened a little at the mention of his daughter.

"I was wondering who has been training your daughter; she is showing remarkable abilities for one so young."

The Clan Head straightened in his seat. "She has become proficient at the Jūken?"

Kakashi narrowed his eye at him. He had sounded hopeful. "Yes and no, her style is not like how I remember your brother fought."

The clan head lowered his head. "That makes sense; I stopped trying to teach her Jūken almost three years ago. She doesn't have the physical strength needed. I sparred with her a year and a half ago. She had shown progress even without my guidance, I decided to leave it will enough alone until after she had graduated. The Academy was taking much of her time."

That had revelation threw Kakashi for a loop, she had been developing a new Jūken style on her own, if the Clan Head didn't know about the training then it hadn't been a Hyūga that had been training them.

"What can you tell me about this style of hers?"

Kakashi was reeling, this wasn't good. The Hyūga were big on tradition, if she had broken with tradition, it could quite possibly end up badly for the young heiress. He couldn't refuse to tell about it however, he wasn't allowed to interfere with Clan business and it was her father asking. "It's like someone has been working with her adapting the style to make up for the lower physical strength. Relying on agility and speed to block and bypass defenses."

Hiashi looked thoughtful. "I see, that is certainly interesting, I shall have to test this style of hers in the future." He had just thrown her to the lions by the looks of it. This wasn't good. Hiashi paused for a moment. In a rare show of emotion from the stoic clan head, Kakashi noted the pain and regret in his voice. "She is so much like her mother, her mother was shunned by most of them clan because she couldn't perform the Jūken properly. If what you're saying is true and she is developing her own version. Then I have a request and a warning for you. The elder council will not take kindly to changing traditions. I implore you to help her become strong. She will need it. The Chūnin exam is in five months, she must be able to best her cousin Neji. Neji is a prodigy and a strong example of the traditional style. If she loses to him using her own version she will be deemed weak and be seen to corrupt the traditions. I do not have enough support to go against a vote for tradition."

Kakashi nodded, if the elder council went against Hinata, she would be in serious danger. "I will try to keep your daughter safe, Hiashi-sama. I bid you a good night." Kakashi got up and left the compound. He had much to plan if he were to protect his new students. Not just Hinata, but Naruto with his strange taijutsu might also be seen as a breach of traditions and might be in equal danger.

* * *

**Team Kakashi, present time, the Third Training Ground**

"Alright kids, I'm gonna need to see a demonstration of some of your skills to see where you are and what we need to work with. I know I didn't the full show yesterday." Kakashi put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder and lead him a few yards away from Naruto and Hinata. Okay you two, how about a spar, I'll keep an eye and see where you need to improve.

The blonde standing to the left of the heiress put his left hand behind his head scratching his neck, then broke into a wide grin. "Okay." Naruto immediately shot out his elbow aiming for Hinata's stomach.

Hinata jumped, putting her hands on the elbow propelling away while twisting in the air doing a full 360 corkscrew before landing 3 yards away. "Oh come on Naruto-kun, you know that cheap shots like that only work the first time."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Had she just said that Naruto had elbowed her in the stomach before? That didn't seem like something the two lovebirds would do to each other.

Naruto just laughed. "Well you can't blame me for trying, besides we can't have you letting your guard down." He then jumped around to face her, doing small jumps while facing her, as the third jump connected to the ground he rocketed towards the girl. Kicking up some of the grass, he had been jumping on.

Hinata saw it coming and had activated her Byakugan moments before. As Naruto flew towards her, he twisted in the air snapping out a leg for a high kick. Hinata ducked backwards, snaking out her right hand to hit his leg with a Jūken strike. To counter the attack, Naruto threw his head back to change his rotation moving his leg up to get away from the dangerous fingers of the girl. Then when the leg was above her head, he snapped it downwards in an ax kick. Unable to move out of the way in time Hinata thew up her hands to deflect the leg guiding it past her head and pushing it away from her.

Naruto settled into his stance in front of Hinata as he recovered from the shove. They began a rapid-fire exchange of blows that all seemed to be deflected or dodged just at it would have hit the other.

Naruto managed to get a palm-strike past Hinata's defenses, unable to twist completely out of the way it grazed her left shoulder, Hinata hit the tenketsu on the elbow of the right arm that had hit her. Both jumped back, away from each other. While the attack had only grazed her, the tremendous amount of strength behind Naruto's palm strikes had still caused her a lot of pain. She stood holding a hand to her shoulder, while smiling at the blonde boy in front of her, who was trying to move his lower arm.

Kakashi stepped in. "Alright that is quite enough for now."

Sasuke was looking at the two wide eyed. What the hell, had just happened, they were attacking each other like they had been fighting for real. Not only that; he had barely been able to follow the melee near the end with his eyes. Composing himself, he noticed he had been holding his breath watching the short spar. Genin didn't fight like that, he had never seen either of them display anything near that level during the six years, they had been in the same class in the Academy.

Afterwards Naruto had just walked up to the young Hyūga and nudged her right shoulder while still holding his paralyzed arm. "Good one Hinata-chan, that one was in your favor." She gave him a smile. "That's right, it's your turn to buy today then." Naruto let out a sigh. "Cinnamon rolls again I take it."

Kakashi just looked at the two kids and then started laughing. "You know for a moment it actually seemed that you two were trying to kill each other." He looked at the two. Just how much had they spared against each other to be able to go all out like that.

Kakashi turned to the stunned Sasuke next to him. "So, you were the top of your class, if you went up against something like that with the Academy taijutsu, what do you think would happen."

Sasuke felt a little humbled, he knew exactly what Kakashi had meant by that. "I would get my ass kicked."

Kakashi just smiled at him. "Glad you understand. That is the difference between learning a fighting style and making a style your own through experience. By the looks of it, those two have a lot of experience."

Naruto and Hinata had made their way over to them. Naruto sporting a grin. "So did we do alright sensei?"

Kakashi nodded slightly. "That was very impressive, there is still much that can be done to refine it, but that is a very good start. Most Chūnin would have a hard time matching it." Hinata blushed a little at that comment, not used to have anyone besides Naruto giving her compliments.

"I was just talking with Sasuke about it, in a straight up taijutsu fight, the two of you would have him beat easily. If it was an all out fight, only judging from what I saw yesterday mind you, the three of you would be fairly close. Taijutsu is not all there is to being a shinobi. Only very few can get by on it alone. Your taijutsu would be best improved by actual combat, so instead we will shore up the areas you lack experience in. For you Naruto, it would be Chakra control and once you have more control, we will work on adding some ninjutsu to your repertoire. Hinata I heard about the forced Kawarimi you performed at the graduation test. Very impressive, more so to have that amount of control and ability at your age. Tell me, why did you pick Ino as the target for the technique?"

Hinata fidgeted a little. "Uh, because I knew I could replace myself with her. I cannot replace myself with someone like Naruto." Kakashi nodded. "That is true, Naruto here has a tremendous amount of Chakra. You would die from Chakra exhaustion for even trying. I take it you had used your Byakugan to find someone you could safely replace?" Hinata nodded while blushing a little. "Would you be able to replace yourself with Sasuke here?" Activating her Byakugan she looked at Sasuke and shook her head slightly. "I don't think so. He has more Chakra than me; I don't know exactly how much I would use on that amount."

Kakashi smiled. "You might be able to but you would pass out afterwards. I could replace myself with you and Sasuke and it wouldn't affect me all that much. Naruto is another matter, even I couldn't replace myself with him, due to a circumstance I won't disclose he has an unnaturally large amount of Chakra, that is also why he has so poor control. For Chakra at your disposals, the all three of you, are all still growing, meaning your Chakra coils are still developing, and you will have more available as you grow older. Besides that, there is physical conditioning and spiritual conditioning that can be done to increase your available Chakra. Hinata we will work on those, and besides along with learning more ninjutsus. The Hyūga has relied too much on clan abilities in the past. There are several ways to completely shut down your bloodlimit, but your council would never admit that, and so you are never taught anything you can do if your Byakugan fails you."

Hinata nodded gravely. If she could learn the limitations, she would be better prepared. There was no telling what they could end up against trying to reach their goal.

"Now Sasuke I saved you for last. Mainly because you do not have a single area we need to focus on. Eventually you will have your Sharingan, but that won't do you much good if you get killed before it is awakened. We will split your focus between sparring, chakra control and work on increasing your available Chakra. You are already very proficient with ninjutsu and when your bloodlimit awakens you will be able to learn new ones almost instantly."

Sasuke was feeling better about his skills; his confidence had dropped during the spar. Hearing that they would be evenly matched or close had brought him back to his normal mindset.

"One last thing before we start on training. I assume it was you Naruto that had setup all the traps yesterday?" The young blonde smiled, and in a gesture put his left arm around Hinata standing next to him. "Yes, Hinata and me" Hinata winced in pain as he had put his hand onto the shoulder he had hit earlier. "Sorry, Hinata-chan" Quickly removing his hand again. Kakashi grinned at the two. "It was very impressive, many ignore traps these days. A true trap master can take on enemies much stronger than themselves with just a little setup time. With you having the Kage Bunshin you can even setup traps during combat. Remember to utilize it and it will become a great weapon in your arsenal."

* * *

**The Third Training Group, one hour later.**

Naruto was sitting against the middle post in the clearing, looking focused. He had removed his Hitai-ate, and was now sitting with a leaf in the middle of his forehead. The leaf was ever so slowly turning. Turning his head to Kakashi who was sparing with Sasuke, he yelled. "Kakashi it's turning now, can I please please do something else." Kakashi just looked at him while effortlessly deflecting a swing from Sasuke. "No, it's still turning too slowly, once you get it to turn fast enough, you can take another leaf and have it turn at the same time but in the opposite direction." Naruto looked at him with puppy eyes. "Please." Kakashi let out a sight. "Oh alright, let me just finish here and I will show you how to walk up trees." Kakashi snapped out a blow, hitting Sasuke in the right shoulder, sending him tumbling to the ground. "You might as well join him in this exercise Sasuke." Walking over to the tree line where Hinata was sitting.

Hinata was sitting with her eyes closed meditating. After she had run 20 laps around the clearing without being even slightly winded Kakashi had concluded that she was probably in as good a shape as she could be without going into descending into Gai madness. Meaning she probably wouldn't get all that much out of physical training to increase the physical energy for Chakra. There were after all limits to how much a body could handle before it was fully developed. So instead he decided to try to increase the spiritual energy, this would probably be the limiting factor. So to increase her spiritual energy, Hinata would have to meditate a few hours every day.

Kakashi had finished showing the two boys how to walk up trees. Naruto gave a huge smile. "Hinata has been showing me how to do this, watch!" As he ran towards the tree next to where Hinata was sitting, the other two followed him closer. As Naruto put the first foot on the tree, Hinata opened her eyes and then promptly threw herself on the ground, covering her head with her arms. "Wha" was all Sasuke managed looking at the prone girl, interrupted as the tree Naruto had been moving upwards on, exploded in a shower of splinters, rocketing Naruto towards the ground.

Hinata got up from the ground, giggling a little at the others who were sitting shocked on the ground covered in splinters. She walked over to Naruto, who was now on his hands and knees trying to get up. Slapping him hard on the back of his head, she in a stern tone said. "Didn't I tell you to warn me when that was about to happen you goof."

Kakashi was brushing himself off, looking at the stump of the tree and the crown, which had been blown into the forest. There obviously was a long way to go for Naruto with Chakra control yet. Pondering for a moment, at just how much Chakra you would need to blow up a tree like that. Using a jutsu was one thing it would focus the chakra. However blowing it up by radiating chakra was the equivalent of taking a hairdryer and blowing on the tree expecting it to blow up.

"Naruto, you should probably go back to the leaf exercise. Sasuke, we're gonna keep at this for another hour and then you should spar some with Hinata." Naruto looked a little defeated, but walked over to the posts without complaining.

"We're holding off with ninjutsu for another week, meanwhile I'd like you all to spar every day to get a feel for each others' fighting style, so you work better as a team."

* * *

**Sasuke, evening, 7 days later, hidden library - main Uchiha house**

Sasuke was feeling worn out. Their sensei had literally beaten some basics into them for a week now. His body was bruised; his pride wasn't doing much better.

He had been watching Naruto and Hinata spar every day, and yesterday he had told Naruto not to go easy on him when they were to spar. He had opened the fight with a high spinning kick towards the blonde. Instead of dodging the attack like he had seen Naruto do with everything Hinata had thrown at him. He had instead grabbed the leg, throwing his own momentum into it and flung him 10 yards into the forest. The bush he had landed in would probably never recover. Determined it was a fluke he had run back out, throwing a punch towards the dobe's face. This time however Naruto did dodge and then planted a palm on his face. His cheek was still a deep purple and he had a massive blue eye. He had never been hit that hard by anyone before. Kakashi's strikes were hard, but that was just something different. To make matters worse Kakashi had laughed at him, telling him that he wasn't ready for something like that yet and pain was a good way to learn your limitations.

Naruto and Hinata's sparring sessions had been something else. Kakashi on the second day had told them to fight as if any injury would be fatal, so it had been important to avoid being hit in the spar. After 30 minutes, Hinata dropped to her knees with Chakra exhaustion. The dobe had immediately rushed over to her, only to have her hit him with a Jūken in the stomach, putting him down for a good 30 minutes.

That had meant Hinata had won again and they were to go eat cinnamon rolls after they were done for the day. He didn't quite understand those two, they managed to injure each other every day and then went out to eat afterwards like it was nothing. They would of course invite him along. On the fourth day he had politely declined. Cinnamon rolls four days in a row were a bit much.

Sasuke had quickly noticed that the meek girl had something of a devious side to her. Yesterday after having humiliated him Naruto and Hinata was sparring again. Hinata had stepped on a stone seemly twisting her ankle letting out a little yelp of pain and stumbling forward. Naruto had stopped attacking her; she hit his knee and shoulder. Standing up normally right after, smiling as the dobe flopped to the ground like a fish.

He suspected that Naruto let her win some of them; a person couldn't possibly be quite that dumb. Maybe that was something you did for girls. They were a complete mystery to him, a mystery that could wait.

Sasuke yawned, he should probably head to bed. He hadn't had the energy to study at all since they started on the training. Tomorrow was a day off before they would switch to a mixture of training and missions. He would be sure to get in some time for reading.

* * *

**Academy Antics: Lost**

An eleven-year-old black haired boy was running through the halls of the Academy in a panic. "Where are you, come out, please." Tears were streaming down his cheeks.

He had just been there when he went to the bathroom, now he was gone. He sat down on a bench and started crying for real. He hoped nothing had happened. His mom would kill him if she found out about this. Twice over if, something had happened.

A girl approached him. "Why are you crying?" Looking up he croaked out. "I lost him, I cannot find him, he was there and then he was done, I cannot find his trail." Nodding the girl looked away frowning. "I think I know where we have to go." She dragged him off towards the stairs and out the back door. Going into the bushes, a small white dog was yipping as two older children was trying to hit it with a stick. "GET AWAY FROM AKAMARU." Kiba charged the older boys and torpedoed into the stomach of the largest one, knocking him to the ground, he sprang up and swiped the other boy's face with his nails leaving three long cuts down his left cheek. Both boys ran off.

He picked up Akamaru and clutching the small dog tight. The girl giggled a little and petted the dog on the head. "Cute dog." She then turned and walked back to the building.

Kiba didn't even get to thank her before she was gone, he had been too busy making sure his best friend hadn't been hurt.

He sniffed the air, noting the faint scent of lavender that lingered from girl who had helped hm.

* * *

**A/N: **

(Outdated note) No Academy Antics today unfortunately, when I scrapped the chapter, I forgot to copy out the antics for this chapter. I have it under a versioning system, so it is just a matter of digging through to find the right version, but it is somewhere between repository version 490 (current) and 267 (When I started the chapter), and it is only in like two of the versions. So it will take some time to dig out, it will be posted in this chapter once I finally find it again. (I'll note it in the chapter that's posed at the same time when this has been updated.)

We have actual combat in this chapter, I'd love opinions on it, too many details, too few etc. There will be a lot of fighting, once we get to the other side of this story arc. This was Taijutsu only, which to give a proper sense of the fight, requires quite a few details (Which is why I cheated with the rapid-fire bit, since the actual spar would be an entire chapter on its own just for those couple of minutes if I were to go into it blow by blow). Normal fights will have break away for jutsu use etc. and will be much easier to describe without going too into details. (Man I am not looking forward to Rock Lee once he makes an entrance, ah well quite a few chapters to that yet at least.)


	4. Chapter 4: Day Off

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or any associated characters.

* * *

**A/N:** Welcome to the fourth chapter of Sister Lost.

**NOTE: The previous chapter had been changed.**

As per feedback (Much appreciated **Balatros**), I have updated the previous chapter (Ch 3), if you're not coming directly here from the previous chapter hop back and reread the bottom of the third last scene and the two new sections, a connecting section that originally was part of Chapter 4, and the recovered Academy Antics (I really wish I would remember to put comments on my commits, was a pain to browse through my subversion for the original chapter 3 from before the complete rewrite, but had to find it since it is referenced in this chapter).

You know the drill: I do not have any beta readers so spelling, characterization and such are all on me, feel free to point out any and all glaring errors. Especially since English isn't my first language. I will try to avoid all the regular pitfalls, but it will be unavoidable that things slip through; feedback will allow me to fix mistakes and prevent future ones. So tear my grammar and spelling a new one if you find errors.

Once more thanks to **1Waylander** for the corrections. I am compiling a list to run through once I am done with the story arc, trying to get through the story arc and get into the next one before new years since things will slow down once I have to work again.

**Prince of Madness 54** on Review of Chapter 2: The scene is meant to be rather abrupt. However if that is the feeling you are left with after reading it, perhaps it is a bit too abrupt. I'll have a look at it again after this story arc. :)

Thanks for the reviews so far, glad people are enjoying it.

This chapter took forever to write. Was attacked by plot bunnies that demanded my attention with details of the next few story arcs, which is distracting while you're trying to write something else by the way. Along with having to plot out power growth for all the rookie 9, during this first week, a month, 5 months later with the exam etc. to avoid anyone becoming overpowered.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Day off**

**Naruto, 4:50 in the morning, apartment in the slums**

Naruto sat up in his bed with a start, bathed in sweat and a slight tinge of iron in his mouth. For the last week, he had the same dream. Every time he saw more and more of what happened. Getting up and walking into his bathroom, he stuck out his tongue. It looked normal, he was sure he had tasted blood, did not look like he had bitten his tongue though.

Walking back into his living room he plopped down on his couch, feeling a bit worse for wear. A few minutes later, he was starting to feel more himself, refreshed even. Briefly wondering if his abundant energy actually meant he could go without sleep. It would make him avoid the nightmares. Remembering Hinata-chan had said that you needed sleep to grow, he quickly dismissed the thought; he was shorter than she was and didn't want it to keep being that way.

He got up and ready for the day, then headed out to their spot.

Several hours passed, it was almost noon and he was bored out of his mind. Where was she? Hinata-chan would usually be here by now. He hoped nothing had happened to her.

* * *

**Hinata, 6:30, her room, main house - Hyūga compound**

Hinata had not slept much during the night. She was looking up at the ceiling, unable to get up. Yesterday when she had gotten home, her father was been sitting in the common room waiting for her. He had told her, he wanted to test her progress today and quickly dismissed her.

She flinched at the memory of the last time she had been 'tested' having been walking with a limp for days afterwards.

She got up, might as well get it over with, thinking to herself that if she got tested now she may even be able to walk in time for their get together this evening.

Entering the common room, she found her father sitting in training garb instead of his normal clothes. "Otou-sama, I-I'm ready." Her father looked at her frowning. "Perhaps you should eat first."

They ate in silence, she was getting more and more nervous. Why had her father insisted on eating first? Still without saying a word, they went out to the dojo.

Taking their places in the middle of room, her father settled into the Jūken stance. Looking at her father with determination, she settled into her own stance. If it had surprised her father, he hadn't shown it.

Hiashi took a step forward, she almost hadn't been able to avoid the strike aimed for her shoulder. It had come seemingly out of nowhere, her father had been standing 3 yards away and was now suddenly in front of her attacking relentlessly. Dodging the lightning fast attacks, only blocking a few. He was holding back, she knew there were openings in her defense. Kakashi had shown her the difference between a genin and a jōnin by walking up to her during a spar and sending her crumbling to the ground with a single strike. Her father was at least as fast as their sensei, if not faster.

She was starting to panic, if she didn't do something soon her father would grow tired of her weakness and attack for real. Then suddenly the attack stopped. Hiashi took a step back and settled back into the stance, just looking at her as if inviting her to attack him.

Her mind was screaming at her, this was it; he had grown weary of her. She hoped he wouldn't hurt her too badly, she had been looking forward to seeing the others from her former class, it had been more than a week since she had seen everyone. While she didn't say much in the presence of everyone. She enjoyed being around people that wasn't looking at her in contempt.

Her father was still just standing in front of her waiting. She attacked quickly striking at his right shoulder with her right hand. He blocked her by slamming the back of his hand into her wrist, ducking down to the right as she twisted her arm around in a circular motion under the blocking arm. Her father's reach was greater than hers and the block had meant she had moved back a few inches. The attack didn't connect stopping just short of his shoulder.

She tried again on the left, with the same result, but this time he attacked her right side, she barely managed to twist out of the way of the attack that would have hit her waist.

This continued for a few minutes she would try to attack, get blocked twist around it and then receive a counter attack at her exposed side. Hiashi took a step back holding up his hand. "That is quite enough child. Thank you." He turned and was about to leave. "An-ano" Hiashi turned. "Yes?" Hinata looked at her father. "You-you're not mad at me?" Hiashi turned back towards the door and as he left. "No, daughter, I am not mad."

Hinata was distressed, what had that meant? Had her father finally completely given up on her? He had been attacking so slowly compared to what he could. Perhaps he didn't think her worth any more effort than that.

She returned to her room and threw herself on the bed, burrowing her face in the pillow. A few minutes later, she had fallen asleep, it had been early and she was tired from what had just happened.

She awoke a few hours later, feeling hungry. It was almost noon. Shrugging out of her training garb she quickly put on her regular clothes. Heading out towards a certain ramen stand. She was sure to find her ball of energy there at this time of day. Spending time with him was sure to lighten her mood.

* * *

**Shikamaru, 11 in the morning, field close to his house**

Shikamaru let out a yawn. It was nice being able to just watch the clouds. The last seven days seemed to have been dragging on forever. He was sore in places he didn't even know existed.

Asuma was a good teacher. They had split their time between chakra exercises and physical training. The sensei had obviously been talking with their parents. He had run exercises where he attacked and they had to defend Ino, taking advantage of the experience of their parents.

Ino was damn hard to move when laughing hard from their clumsy attempts at moving her when she was playing defenseless. Eventually Ino would be able to do jutsus that didn't leave body vulnerable while it was in effect. However, most of the Yamanaka clan jutsu required a very high level of control. One his teammate didn't have yet, so they would have to support her.

Asuma had been drilling them in evasion, dodging and some taijutsu to shore up their abilities. Both he and Ino were on the weak side for fighting. Their techniques relied on subterfuge, but relying on Chōji to do all their fighting was a bad strategy. They needed to be holding their own until it was tactically sound to use their clan techniques.

Chōji was already a very strong fighter, so outside of the team exercises he had been spending all his time on Chakra exercises. The Akimichi fought by converting calories into Chakra, by having a greater control he would be able to do so more efficiently, able to use his jutsu to greater effect.

Ino and Chōji had both stopped training at two in the afternoon every day, going home to train with their families. Shikamaru's father was on a long mission and wouldn't be back for the week. He would spend the afternoon with Asuma, playing Shogi and discussing tactics. Asuma had been impressed that the lazy boy had taken an interest in traps. It would mesh well with both the Nara and the Yamanaka jutsu.

Shikamaru closed his eyes; perhaps he would take a nap or two before they were going to dinner. It was nice to finally relax. He had spent many days in this particular park, skipping classes together with Kiba, Chōji and occasionally Naruto and Hinata, when they managed to convince the latter. Naruto wouldn't skip classes without her.

* * *

**Sakura, 9 in the morning, in her room**

Sakura was humming a little tune while getting ready for the day. It had been a great week. Her new Jōnin-sensei was a very accomplished kunoichi. Still it was nice with a day off; she had not had the time to read all week and was looking forward to a day in the library.

She had been spending more of her free time with Ino, without Sasuke to fight over they were slowly becoming friends again. She had been teaching Ino about some of the stuff specific for kunoichi that Kurenai-sensei had taught her.

She wasn't too fond of her team. Shino was nice enough, but those bugs were creepy. Kiba was loud, brash, and kept making comments about everything no matter how inane.

Yesterday they had gotten into a huge fight, Kiba had claimed that she reeked of flowers and that it was giving her a headache. Kurenai had stopped her as she was trying to hit Kiba. Agreeing with him. Smelling like that was dangerous. Kurenai could smell her from several yards away. Someone like Kiba could probably smell her from several hundred. Giving away your location like that could be lethal. She had recommended some soaps and perfumes that were more suitable. One should stick to perfumes that were suited for the season, and only applying very little of it, even when in the village, one could never know if there was a emergency mission around the corner.

During their training she had seen Shino attack Kiba in a spar, it had scared the crap out of her and she refused to spar against Shino after that. The thought of all those bugs crawling on her, sent an involuntary shiver through her.  
Dog boy was downright dangerous; they had sparred on the second day. He had turned into a spinning thing of doom, she had barely dodged causing him to hit the tree near her, and he had drilled several inches into it. She immediately surrendered after that not wanting to be hit by that.

Afterwards she had understood why, Kurenai-sensei had her see Shino fight and try to fight Kiba. Rather bluntly pointing out how weak Sakura was in an actual fight. She had gotten through the Academy based solely on her excellent grades in everything but taijutsu.

During the Academy she had mastered all three stages of the leaf exercises, on the first day with their new sensei she had both mastered tree and water walking. Kurenai had started teaching her genjutsu. It was her area of expertise after all. Genjutsu requires high control to influence others with chakra.

After she had gotten some of the basics down, Kurenai had complimented her on being a natural. Genjutsu required intelligence and imagination. The explanation of gotten a snide comment from Kiba. "Oh Sakura has the best imagination in the world. How else would she be able to picture Sasuke ever giving her the time of day." Kiba had recieved a heavy beating for that; Kurenai hadn't intervened since that comment had been inappropriate enough to warrant a deterrent.

Kurenai wasn't the strongest at taijutsu but she was still a Jōnin and you didn't come to be a real Jōnin without an all-round set of skills besides having an expertise. There were people that attained Jōnin with a singular skill, but most never made it past special Jōnin. Kurenai was giving her extra training outside of the regular training hours for taijutsu. She had a lot of catching up to do, to avoid dragging the others down.

Besides genjutsu training for Sakura, Kurenai had spend time working with Kiba working on his control. Shino had mostly been sitting meditating during their training sessions. He had received another, more aggressive, colony since he had graduated. It had been taking most of his chakra and focus to get them under control until they could coexist with his other colonies without aggression between them. Shino had still shown up to all the sessions, stating that it was logical to be present for team exercises even if he couldn't participate.

Sakura finished getting ready, heading out the door to the library.

Kurenai-sensei had recommended her a beginner level book about the application of genjutsu for her to study. It didn't contain any actual genjutsus but it covered the various methods one could trap someone in them. After she had found the book she headed out to the long table in the middle where you could study. At the end of the table at the far wall he sat.

He was at the library! She rushed down other side of the table, then reminding herself it was the library and she should be quiet. She sat down across the table from Sasuke. A look of horror across her features when she saw Sasuke's face. "Who did this to you?" She hissed out barely avoiding shouting in the library.

Sasuke had been completely engrossed in his book at hadn't noticed her before she said anything. He cursed to himself, now he was stuck with her. Almost letting out an indifferent 'hn' is reply; he stopped himself and narrowed his eyes at her. Sakura was the second most intelligent person in their old class, only beaten by Shikamaru. The difference between the two was that Sakura read a ton of books. He could use that in his quest for answers.

He looked up at her and muttered. "Naruto, Naruto did this." Sakura went wide-eyed. Naruto had done this to her Sasuke-kun? Surely that couldn't be possible that the failure could even touch him. Sasuke continued. "We were sparring, I told him to not hold back and he took me out in one hit. It's why I'm here." Sasuke lifted the book he was reading. Clans of Konohagakure, a History. "He has been holding back in the Academy. Along with another thing I've come to the conclusion that he has a bloodline or comes from a clan." Sakura looked at the black haired youth. She had never seen him take interest in anything like that before. A thought shot through her mind, maybe he liked boys and that was why he was so interested in Naruto. She quickly squashed the thought again; she liked yaoi as much as the next girl, but she'd rather want Sasuke for herself.

He was talking to her that was a start. "Here let me show you something." Sasuke took a small wooden block he had next to him. He started channeling as much chakra into it as he could muster. Looking a little pale afterwards, he showed her the wood. In the middle, there was a crack about half an inch deep. "Naruto can make trees explode doing that, without looking like he spent any significant amount of energy on it. He has to be from a clan or something, that is not something just anyone can do."

They spend the rest of the morning trying to dig for information, after two hours they still hadn't have any luck, all they knew was his last name which wasn't referenced anywhere at all, which in itself was suspicious. Digging through records Sakura had found references to her own family. Which wasn't a clan and her parents weren't even shinobi. For a distinct last name like Uzumaki not being mentioned anywhere was odd to say the least. They also knew that both his parents had died during the Kyuubi attack 12 years ago but it had been next to impossible to find anything about the attack at all.

Feeling defeated they had decided to call off the search for information for now. Sakura had managed to get Sasuke to agree to continue the search another day. It wasn't much, but she'd take what she could get. Sasuke hadn't said more than four words at any one time to her before.

Sakura smiled to herself as she headed back home with her book checked out. She hadn't had time to read anything in it, but spending time with Sasuke had more than made up for that.

* * *

**Two boys, 17:45, in front of a Barbeque restaurant**

A boy hidden away in a large jacket and a boy with a dog on his head was leaning against the wall of the restaurant.

Today was the official day off for the rookie 9. They had all agreed to meet at the restaurant to celebrate the first week as shinobi. Kiba had been thrown out early by his mom, walking to the restaurant, finding Shino already there.

Kiba sniffed in the air, and turned calling out of Sakura as she was approaching. "Decided to not roll in a pile of flowers this morning, eh?" Sakura looked a little embarrassed

Kiba looked around catching a scent."Flower shop, Ino is on her way." Turning to the other two.

Sakura would have to talk to Ino about that later. She didn't want her friend killed because the enemy found her on a mission. Sakura narrowed her eyes and looked at Dog-boy. "Hey Kiba, that scent thing, is that why all the kids would never allow you to play ninja with us back when we were younger?" Kiba let out a small sigh at being reminded. "Yeah, me and Naruto weren't allowed to play because we could find the others too easily." Sakura looked at him. She hadn't been aware of them excluding the both of them when they were younger, and were feeling more than a little guilty about it. "Naruto was excluded as well." Kiba shrugged. "Yea, his nose is almost as good as mine, but I think there were other reasons why he wasn't included. We spend time horsing around instead, just the two of us."

Sakura was feeling even worse now. Thinking about what Kurenai-sensei had told her when she had hit Kiba for laughing at her when she fell off a tree. "You shouldn't alienate your teammates Sakura. If you drive everyone away, who will watch your back?" It had run through her mind repeatedly. Were she alienating people? She only really had one friend. She had lashed out at people back when she was younger because of them teasing her about her forehead. Now she had been told she had participated in excluding people from their games. Maybe she wasn't really all that nice of a person?  
Ino came up to them snapping her out of her reverie.

"Hey Ino-chan" Ino boggled, she wasn't used to Sakura not calling her pig. Maybe they were become good friends again after being rivals for so long. Sakura was her only female friend, and it hurt her how bitter and spiteful they had become around each other.

Kiba sniffed in the air again. "Ramen-boy and Lavender-girl on their way." Ino picked up on that right away. "Lavender-girl?" She asked with a grin plastered on her face. "You like Hinata?" Kiba blushed a little. Then Sakura cut in. "Kiba you better not try anything with her, Naruto would kill you." Kiba scoffed. "It's not like the dead last in our taijutsu classes could hurt me." Sakura just shook her head. "Perhaps you should ask Sasuke-kun once he gets here."

Hinata and Naruto rounded the corner heading towards them. Hinata was eating something, enjoying it entirely too much. "Phew thought we were going to be late, Hinata-chan insisted on me buying her a cinnamon roll on the way here."

Both Ino and Sakura looked at the lithe girl in disbelief. "Hinata-chan, you are aware we're going here to eat, right?" Hinata wolfed down the last bite. "Of course." She beamed back. Naruto grinned. "She is with cinnamon rolls like Chōji is with everything edible."

"Oi Naruto, that wasn't very nice." Naruto started a little. The pineapple had managed to sneak up on him. "I don't mind" Chōji added walking up behinds them with a mouth full of chips. "Troublesome. Why did we have to meet here anyways?"

The final member of the group finally arrived 5 minutes later. Ino almost fainted when she saw him. "What happened to your face?" The scowling youth let out a small 'hn', as the group headed into the restaurant to find a seat.

Naruto and Hinata were the first to take a seat in the booth. There were three benches two supporting three people at both sides and a bench against the wall seating four. Hinata had taken the outer place in one of the sides. Naruto sitting next to her in the middle. Sasuke moved quickly and snagged up the third seat of the bench, lest he be seated next to the fan girls. He wasn't completely saved as Ino scrambled around and took the seat on the wall bench next to his. Still it was better than to sit directly next to her, avoiding her trying to scoot up against him. As the rest of the group filled in, Shikamaru had naturally taken the seat opposite Hinata as the outer seat was the least troublesome to get to.

The Uchiha heir spoke up, with a rare smile on his face. "So dobe, I take it Hinata won your spar today." Naruto scowled. "Teme." Sasuke continued while gesturing with his hand at Hinata. "Because she has clearly just tried to inhale a cinnamon roll a short while ago." Hinata blushed furiously while her inner Hyūga was screaming at her for being seen so undignified, as she quickly removed the crumbs from her face.

"Wasn't much a spar, dumb tree exploded and she hit me while I was flying." Naruto muttered. Sasuke shook his head. He had mastered tree walking and had moved onto water walking while Naruto was still exploding trees left and right. It was better, Naruto had spent most of the week on the leaf exercise and he could now walk up trees with only a 50% chance of splinter rain.

"What's this with exploding trees Naruto?" In a rare showing of interest Shikamaru had stopped slumping in his seat and was now studying Naruto. "You know that tree walking exercise? They keep exploding when I walk up with them." Shikamaru was taken aback by the blonde's words. They had been practicing tree walking as well. The prospect of exploding the tree outright was a little frightening. Confirming his suspicion about something being off about the boy. To him, Naruto was a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in an incredibly troublesome personality. He had spend many afternoons together with him and the blue haired girl discussing traps, trying to focus the blonde's short attention span long enough to teach him Shogi. He had studied the two who had come to be considered good friends of his. The way the two moved, how Hinata sort of glided with a natural grace and how Naruto moved like he was a predator, like a wolf or another member of the Canidae family. They obviously hid their abilities in the Academy. His curiosity got the best of him. "So Sasuke, how did you come by that shiner?"

Sasuke sighed, and related the story hoping they would lay off him. After he was done Ino as giving Naruto a venomous glare and the other was looking at him with a shocked expression. "I thought he would dodge it. It is what you'd normally do. Like this." As he said it, he shot his right arm back, which had been over the table, elbow towards Hinata's face.

Like it was the most natural thing in the world Hinata tilted her head ever so slightly so the elbow flew past. Snapping her head back as soon as it had gone past. She turned her head and flashed Naruto a mischievous grin. She had hit him in the shoulder earlier, making him unable to lift his arm over shoulder height. Naruto's arm was now trapped behind Hinata, he would have shrugged if his shoulder had enabled him to. Instead just putting his arm down on the backrest and letting his hand drop over her shoulder.

They talked into the evening. Relating stories arguing about who had gotten the better sensei. The other teams were glad they hadn't gotten Kakashi as their Jōnin.

It was getting late. Hinata had been worn out from the day. Falling asleep with her head on Naruto's shoulder. It was all Ino could do to let out a squeal at the scene. Naruto noticed the sleeping girl on his shoulder. With a quick ram seal on the hand, he had over her shoulder, two Kage Bunshin popped into existence. They gingerly lifted the sleeping girl out of the booth. Naruto stood up and in a low voice. "I'm gonna get her home. Take care." The clones gently placed Hinata in his arms and he went out of the door.

Ino couldn't contain her excitement. She had let out a small 'awww', when Naruto had taken her in her arms. As soon as the two had disappeared from sight, she turned to Sasuke. "Have you caught them doing anything yet?" Sasuke let out a small 'hn.' He could not understand the gossip's fascination with his two teammates. "Oh come on, you have to tell us all about it." Seeing as the she would not let up. Sasuke stood up and walked out through the door into the night.

* * *

**Hyūga Hiashi, main house, Hyūga compound**

Hiashi was sitting in his office. In his hand was a photo of a woman with long blue hair, holding a baby in her arms, Hiashi standing next to her and a little girl with the same blue hair standing between them.

Tears were falling down on the table in front of him. He brushed his fingers over the image of his late wife. "I'm sorry, I-I can't, I-I don't. She is so much like you." He was lost he had failed her. He hadn't been taking proper care of their daughter. When their little family had been torn apart, Hiashi had been broken. He didn't know how to comfort his daughter, so she had grown distant. He had eventually stopped training with her. It hadn't become easier the last few years, she was looking more like his wife every day. He didn't know how to fix it.

The scene from earlier today burned into his mind. "You-you're not mad at me?" His daughter had looked afraid of him.

He regretted what had happened when he had been testing her, a year and a half ago. She had shown progress, he had overestimated how much it was and a strike he had assumed would be blocked got through, striking her hip with a tremendous force. He had barely used any chakra but a little would still be excruciating to a little girl.

There was a knock on his door; he quickly straightened his clothes, putting the picture back into the pocket inside his garb over his heart, where it belonged.

Outside was a branch member holding a sleeping Hinata in his arms. Hiashi looked at the man. "What is the meaning of this?" The man took a step back at the anger in the normally stoic Clan Head's voice. "The demonbrat came with her like this. Don't worry, we ran him off." Hiashi was furious. "YOU WHAT?" He took the sleeping form of his daughter out of the arms of the man. "The young man brings my sleeping daughter home safe, and you dare do SOMETHING LIKE THAT." Hinata had awoken when her father had taken her. She didn't open her eyes. Hiashi turned and stalked off towards his daughter's room. It had taken all his strength to not strike down the man that had chased off the person that had protected his daughter.

Laying her down on her bed, he brushed the hair away from her face, tracing a finger along her cheek. "Good night, Musume, I am sorry." he whispered as he went out of the room.

Hinata looked out in her dark room. She wasn't sure what had happened. Just staring into the dark until sleep overtook her again.

* * *

**A/N**:

The Academy Antics for this chapter seemed tacky after the final scene, so moved the Academy Antics: Shogi? To the next chapter instead.

We open with a returning issue relating to the title of Chapter 2. Utilizing giant entities of rage and killing intent has consequences.

We take a short break from the training and enjoy a day off. This chapter mostly serves to bring some of the character changes to light. The rookie 9 won't all be seen again for a while as we go into the next story line after "Training" is done. This serves to flesh them out a bit so the changes aren't quite so jarring when we finally see them all again.

For abilities, I'm trying to keep the overall level while keeping the rookie 9 balanced against each other. Team Kakashi will be stronger than the others, there is no way around that. But the other teams will not be all that far behind. I hate how godlike Sasuke and Naruto become towards the war arc in the cannon compared to everyone else. It is not as the others did not train in those years that pass.

I'm rounding out a few characters, Ino and Sakura were basically useless, we can't have that, they would be killed on the very first mission past D rank if they were like in the cannon.

As for personalities, I am tweaking a few, hopefully keeping their personalities somewhat in line while giving them a bit more depth.

It took a while to get this chapter done, but now that I've plotted stuff out power wise I no longer have anything to slow me down, so (hopefully) a chapter a day for the next 4 days.

Musume = Daughter.

Canidae family = Wolves, dogs, foxes *cough*


	5. Chapter 5: D-rank hell?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or any associated characters.

* * *

**A/N: ** Welcome to the fifth chapter of Sister Lost

Once more thanks for the reviews. Keep on picking at my content please.  
Dean Koontz: "The first half-million words are just practice."  
My writing experience prior to this has been limited to the rare help file, mostly documentation for APIs. Meaning this story is knee deep in practice territory, your feedback enables me to improve.

Once more with feeling: I do not have any beta readers so spelling, characterization and such are all on me, feel free to point out any and all glaring errors. Especially since English isn't my first language. I will try to avoid all the regular pitfalls, but it will be unavoidable that things slip through; feedback will allow me to fix mistakes and prevent future ones. So tear my grammar and spelling a new one if you find errors.

**Balatros: **Last part is intentionally that way. We will be going into the stuff later on; I've outlined a lot of background story, going to be a long time before we get into all of it.  
As for the fight, exactly how Hinata fights hasn't directly been described in the story yet besides her incredible agility. If it was not immediately apparent from the fight exactly how she fighting, I'm going to have revise the fight at a later point.

* * *

**Chapter 5: D-rank hell?**

**Team Kakashi minus kakashi, standing in front of the Hokage Tower**

Sasuke was leaning against the wall. He had just unsealed a book from his storage scroll and had flipped to the page he had been reading earlier. It had been a strange morning. The loudmouth was quiet and the heiress was in deep thought.

The last night had ushered in a dramatic change in how he viewed his new teammates. Over the last week, he had noticed a few similarities between them and him. They had drive, as much drive as he had. People that driven eventually would reach their goals.  
The book in his hand had been one he had found during the hunt for information. 'Power' the title had caught his interest. The content hadn't been about what he expected, it wasn't about anything related to jutsu at all. It had been about something he hadn't even thought about. It had been about something entirely different. After reading the first chapter, he understood. This was something he hadn't even considered, this was something he would need in the future. Once he in a few years truly was the last Uchiha. He would revive his clan, it was about what he needed when he was head of the clan, this was about the tools necessary for making his clan powerful once more. The opening to the first chapter had said.

"A man is only as powerful as his connections. Wealth can buy influence, but true loyalty must be earned."

It was a book about politics.

He was looking at his teammates.

The Hyūga would become Clan Head at some point in the future, there was no way around that. She was strong and time would only make her stronger. Her father had lost his wife and after 5 years still hadn't remarried, indicating that Hinata would continue to be the only heir to the clan. Having connections to the strongest clan in konohagakure would certainly help a lot in restoring his own clan.

The loudmouth was conundrum he was strong. Sasuke was sure that individually the three were close to each other in power. However, Kakashi-sensei had told them that he couldn't Kawarimi with Naruto, that meant that Naruto had close to or more Chakra than their Jōnin-sensei. Sasuke had researched Hatake Kakashi when they had found out he were to be their sensei. To his surprise, the rumor was that Kakashi was the primary candidate to take over from the current Hokage in the future. Marking him as the strongest shinobi in the village, there was one other person that was said to be equally strong and that was Hyūga Hiashi. To become Hokage you couldn't be head of a clan. It would be a conflict of interest.  
The strength of Hinata and Naruto made a bit more sense after he had come about that bit of information. Of course, her father had been training them. It had made so much more sense, a clan head wouldn't want potential secrets displayed in the Academy, so they had hidden what they could do.  
The chakra combined with his training gave him a potential to become one of the strongest shinobi of their generation. Assuming the drive to accomplish his goal would stay there. He was sure that the three of them were the only options in their generation to become a Hokage in the future. Hinata would become Clan Head so she was out, so was he, he had no ambition to lead the military force of the nation, and he wanted to resurrect his own clan meaning he would become Clan Head and be opted out as well. That only left Naruto. He had checked rumors, there was only one other student in their age range that could potentially be strong enough. However, this person was a branch member of the Hyūga and so, would never be put in a position of power.

He smiled inwardly, teammates with the future Clan Head of the wealthiest and currently strongest clan in konohagakure and a person who if groomed right could become the Hokage in the future. This had _potential_.

"Geez, where is that stupid sensei." Naruto complained loudly. "We were to go directly from the training ground to here; he left at the same time as us, why have we been standing here for 30 minutes now." Sasuke shrugged, it was indeed impressive to be late when you had left together for a destination.

* * *

**Team Kakashi, half an hour later, inside the Hokage Tower.**

"A cat was stalking me; I had to take the long way around to shake it off." The team rolled their eyes at the Jōnin.

They went into the large office where missions were delegated. "So! So! What mission are you giving us Jiji-san? Do we have to protect a village against dangerous bandits? Rescue a beautiful princess from her kidnappers? What? What?" Hiruzen shook his head a little, waiting for a moment to get a word in edgewise on the hyperactive shinobi.

"Well I'm going to give you this D-rank mission." Handing Kakashi the scroll. Kakashi rolled out the scroll and read the content, then grinning at his students. "Come we're going to have to find a Cat named Tora for Madam Shijimi, the wife of the Daimyō." Kakashi had heard of this mission and the prospect of it warmed his heart, it was good to break the spirits of rookie genin.

As they exited the tower, Hinata stopped them. She quickly turned around and activated her Byakugan. She went into the alley next to the tower and came back out with a cat in her arms. "There really was a cat stalking you, Sensei." Kakashi looked at the cat. "Well I'll be damned." Motioning for his students to follow him back inside the tower.

Back inside the office after they had handed Tora over to Shijimi. Naruto leaned towards Hinata. "Well at least we know why it runs away." Hinata stifled a giggle as she looked at the poor cat being crushed in a hug from the Daimyō's wife.

Hiruzen frowned at the three genin. Looked at his scrolls. "I do believe that is a record for completion of a D-rank mission." Kakashi shot the Hokage a glare, he had been looking forward to see his students chase the little terror.

The Hokage continued. "Very well, let's see if we can find you another mission since you should have plenty of time to complete another." Hiruzen handed Kakashi a new scroll. Rolling it out and smiling to himself. Physical labor, fixing a roof, it wasn't chasing Tora, but it should be nice and exhausting. "Alright kids, lets head out, we're to repair a roof on a barn near the outskirts of town."

Kakashi was standing at a tree, banging his head into it. This was wrong, this was all wrong. That is not how it is supposed to go.

A few yards away the three genin was sitting in the grass playing cards. Behind them where 10 Narutos standing on the roof laying tile, while another 30 had formed a fireman chain and were moving materials to the clones on the roof.

A small rustle was heard from the bush next to Kakashi. Hinata quickly activated her Byakugan, stood up walked over to the bush and picked up the cat that had snuck into it. Returning to the others picking her cards back up while stroking the cat.

One hour later Team Kakashi was heading back. Sasuke and Naruto were in a sour mood they had lost the game and were to treat Hinata to cinnamon rolls later. Hinata smiling smugly at having seen their hand when she had picked up the cat, it had turned the game around in her favor.

Kakashi moved ahead of the group entering the office first. Hiruzen quirked an eyebrow at the quick return. Shrugging as he paid out the mission to the leader for distribute later. "We have gotten another D-rank mission in a few moments ago, seems like Tora has escaped again." As he said it, Hinata entered the office with the cat in her arms and the Hokage drew too hard on his pipe and started coughing loudly, as he finally stopped coughing. "Well here is the pay for the new Tora mission, unfurtunatly we do not have any more missions at this moment."

The three genin were walking out of the tower, Kakashi had dismissed them for the day. Sasuke looked at his two teammates. "It's barely noon at we have already eaten. Want to go train some?" Naruto and Hinata had been hanging their head a little and instantly perked up at that. Sasuke felt a tiny smile tugging at his lips. "Those two definitely have the will to become strong." he mused to himself. Hinata broke into a huge grin. "Okay, but I seem to recall both of you owing me baked goodies, so we're picking that up on the way." Damn it, he had forgotten about that.

Stopping by a store on the way each buying her a bag of cinnamon rolls. As they arrived at the training ground, the twelve rolls had magically disappeared. Sasuke landing next to Naruto as they entered the grounds, leaned over. "How is she not Akimichi sized with all those rolls she consumes?" Naruto whispered back. "I don't know, but I'm not complaining."

Hinata had turned around looking at the two one eyebrow twitching. Naruto went wide-eyed. "SHIT, Sasuke run, she thinks you called her fat." Sasuke swore and turned to hightail it away, Hinata was already in motion and would have caught him if Naruto hadn't intercepted her.

They been trying to hit each other for ten minutes now; Sasuke just shook his head at the two while he was sitting sideways on a tree nose buried his book, he had tracked down the book at a book store before training this morning and returned the other to the library. Hinata had instantly forgotten about chasing him as soon as Naruto had stepped in and attacked her. Those two were crazy.

* * *

**Kakashi, evening, 6 days later, little bar in the middle of Konoha**

Kakashi was sitting on a stool at the bar, next to him was a little pyramid made from 15 empty shot glasses. He had a full one sitting in front of him. Quickly drinking it down, he then turned it around and started another row on the pyramid. "What the hell is wrong with those kids?" He had been hoping to hear the sweet sound of their spirits breaking and the genin complaining for a full week.

The door to the bar opened and Kurenai Yūhi and Sarutobi Asuma walked in. Kakashi grinned behind his mask, subtle arriving together there.

The two sat down to his right, it was only polite when he had to cover his left eye. They noticed the shot pyramid next to him. "Hitting it a little hard tonight aren't you Kakashi, I know it's a day off tomorrow but that seems a little excessive." Kakashi just looked at the two next to him. "You wouldn't believe the week I've had." Asuma just nodded to him. "D-rank hell." Yūhi nodded grimly and gave a slight involuntary shiver. "That cat, we had one to catch it 5 days ago, Akamaru was hiding in Kiba's jacket whenever he saw a cat for 2 whole days."

Kakashi just shook his head. "No, no that is not it at all. This is also the reason I'm drinking, I had a lot of extra pocket change this week." Kakashi pulled a little slip of paper out of his pocket and put it down on the counter in front of the two others.

"What is this?" Asuma picked up the slip and read it. "27 missions this week? You are kidding. My team has done 8" Yūhi and Asmua was both staring at Kakashi, who let out a sigh. "I've never seen anything like it. Between Naruto and Hinata we have caught Tora 15 times this week." Yūhi almost slipped off her seat in surprise. "That monster 15 times?" Kakashi continued. "The furthest we have gotten from the Hokage tower was half a mile. We were walking into the town. Naruto not watching where he was going blundered into a ladder, which fell and landed in a tree besides the house. A surprised cat dropped right into Hinata's arms." Kakashi shook his head. "Then there were the incident with the rock. The second day we were walking down the road just under the Hokage monument. Naruto kicked a rock into a bush, a loud meow and a hiss came from the bush, the cat came flying out straight towards Naruto, he just leaned to the left slightly and Hinata caught the damn thing as soon as it had flown past." Looking up at the two stunned colleagues. "I could keep going, besides the first day where it turns out I had catnip stuck under my shoe after having been at the Yamanaka store for flowers." The two knew for who those flowers were. "It has been the same, Naruto doing something stupid and the girl ending up with a cat in her arms."

Kakashi ordered another shot. "We were in the Hokage's office today, the Daimyō has forbidden my team to ever get a mission to catch Tora again. Because it is instantly returned, it managed to run away several times a day and he felt it was a waste of money, instead of just letting other teams handle it and only loose it once a day."

Taking hold of the shot Kakashi lifted the glass slammed it back down on the counter. "Then there were all the other missions. Naruto is a damn one-man army of labor. He figured out something about the Kage Bunshin even I didn't know." Asmua interrupted. "He can do the Kage Bunshin?" Kakashi shrugged. "Yes, and he can make an insane amount of clones. He found a use I didn't know because frankly I would die of chakra exhaustion even trying to figure that out. If he made a handful or less clones and had clones then make clones, the clones of a clone could then essentially be puppets to the clone that made them. We were shifting through some rubble of a house that had been destroyed in a fire the other day. Naruto made three clones and had them follow each of them around, they then made thirty clones each, with my genin directing the efforts for the clones. What should have taken all day was completed in less than 2 hours."

"Ninety-three, that many clones for 2 hours, I can't believe it." Asmua looked a little pale then waved the bartender over ordering a few of whatever Kakashi was having.

Finally drinking the shot, Kakashi turned in his seat towards the other two. "They have been done before two in the afternoon all days of this week. I followed them yesterday to see what they were up to; they went straight out to train. Uchiha went home after a few hours but the two others kept training until it had gotten dark. The team I have been given are monsters, it's that simple, with more guidance and time, they would end up being as strong as the Sannin."

Sitting in silence for a while. Yūhi finally spoke up. "So Hinata-chan is doing good?" Kakashi nodded, and looked at her in sympathy. Yūhi cared for Hinata as if she had been her own daughter. Not having her on her team was probably breaking her heart. "Hinata is easily the strongest of the three in taijutsu."

Yūhi boggled. The sweet little girl she had helped train back then had become so strong? Kakashi continued. "In a straight taijutsu fight she beats the Uchiha easily, Naruto is a bit more even but she will eventually win. If Naruto is underhanded or use clones, they fight to a standstill. For Sasuke to be able to stand against either of them he has to go all out ninjutsu and taijutsu and will more often than not have to stop due to exhaustion before winning a fight."

Asuma smiled. "Well it's a good thing they have such a good teacher then, we could use another Sannin team. There are many rumors going around. The Iwa has been ruffling their feathers. Relations with sand have been strained as of late. Kiri seems to have shut their borders and rumors of a civil war is circling. Kumo well, since the incident five years ago, we're barely avoiding a war." Kakashi nodded grimly. "We have had more than a decade of peace, but lately it seems like the world is heating up around us. I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to be trying my best to have my team ready for the eventuality."

Kakashi straightened up and got off the barstool. Wobbling a little from the alcohol, as he focused his chakra, pushing back the effects. "I'm changing my teams regiment since we're doing D-rank missions so fast to only running missions 3 days a week, going to spend 3 training them the full day and a day of rest."

Yūhi hopped down from her stool and turned towards Kakashi as he was making his way towards the door. "We're not just gonna take it lying down Kakashi, our teams will meet in the Chūnin exam in a little over 4 months, you better not underestimate our teams." Kakashi put up his hand in a wave as he went out the door smiling under his mask. Yūhi had fire, Asuma is a lucky guy.

* * *

**Sasuke, late morning, 22 days later, day off, lying in his bed**

Sasuke was staring at his ceiling, trying not to move. Everything hurt, and what didn't hurt too badly was sore.

Over the last 3 weeks, Sasuke had become convinced their sensei was trying to kill them. He had been running them into the ground. The two masochistic teammates of his had been all "Thank you, sir. May I have another?" They were every bit as crazy as their teacher was.

They had invited him along to hang around doing nothing today. Both also feeling worn, well Hinata was anyways. The dobe didn't show any signs of fatigue.  
He had declined coming along today; the two was always standing super close to each other. He hadn't ever seen the two of them doing anything, they probably weren't big on public displays of affections, most likely because of Hinata. The Hyūga had a reputation of being a very strict and conservative. In the interest of making them his allies, he figured he should also give them space for themselves.

It had become much easier to be around the two, as soon as he had started to see them as potential allies in both his goals. Once he had acknowledged that both would become strong in the future, Naruto didn't seem quite so annoying and he had started to admire the strength of the quiet girl.

He had sparred with the Hyūga two days ago. It had been a little frightening to fight her when she wasn't holding back. She was so fast. She had eventually won not even taking a single hit he had exhausted himself completely. He almost hit her, the jutsu Kakashi had taught him was efficient. Compared to the Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu, the Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu was more efficient against fast moving target. He hadn't been able to pin her down long enough to make a hit with Gōkakyū, so the many small controllable orbs of fire the Hōsenka produced had been better since they could give chase. He had almost cornered her, when she had shot up into the air in a huge jump, coming down towards her in the cover of the sun hitting him in the back as she landed. A trick she had picked up from Naruto, using Chakra in assisting movement.

Hinata had learned the Shunshin, mostly due to her Byakugan. He and Naruto couldn't follow at that speed yet, so while they had gotten the jutsu down, it was possibly lethal due to being half blind while moving at that speed. Sasuke smiled, he would be able to use it as soon as his Sharingan awakened. Naruto wasn't so lucky and would have to train himself to follow the speed necessary to use it without killing himself.

He had tried to fight Hinata when she didn't limit herself to taijutsu, that did not end well either. She had simply Shunshin'ed to his side and disabled his shoulder. He had cursed to himself on not even be able to react to it. Hinata's speed enabled her to use it in combat; she was limited to a few short-ranged jumps if she wanted to stay in combat condition. Kakashi had warned the three of them, using Shunshin for combat was very dangerous; anyone close to Jōnin level would kill them as soon as they appeared. As it stood, only Hinata would ever be fast enough to dodge or attack straight out of it. There had only been a few people in the history of Konohagakure that had been able to use Shunshin offensively. Off the top of his head Kakashi could only name one. Uchiha Shisui, also known as Shunshin no Shisui. Sasuke had been very interested in that fact. He had then recognized the name and had been seething with anger the rest of the day. Shisui had been the very first of his clan to be slaughtered.

Naruto had gone a surprising route in his training. After all those exploded trees had sent him flying he had tried doing something similar on purpose. The result was he could release a large amount through his legs and could explode into combat, figuratively and literally. Depending on how he focused his Chakra he could disintegrate things in an explosive reaction to the massive amount of chakra, or he could from a complete stand still, if he desired it, propel him in any direction at a incredible speed. It wasn't like the speed of Hinata who could maneuver while moving so fast. It had potential however. Hinata had picked up some pointers from Naruto, and was able to launch herself into the air with it. It was at a lower speed and she couldn't jump as high or as far, but her already high speed combined with it was devastating together with the Jūken.

On top of that Kakashi had been teaching Naruto how to internalize some of the chakra into his muscles further enhancing his strength, doing so slowed him down some as his control was still far behind the Hinata and himself. However, he was able to punch 3 inches into solid rock, enhancing his arm and hand with chakra to withstand the damage it would cause otherwise.

They had sparred, all three of them against their sensei to improve their teamwork. One of the sessions had shown exactly why you didn't Shunshin against a Jōnin. Hinata had appeared behind him, Kakashi had taken a step behind her before she could even react at the end of the jutsu, making a quick chop down on her neck sending her crumbling to the ground.

To prepare for real missions, Kakashi had shown them exactly what a Jōnin could do. They had barely taken a single step towards him before he had run through 15 hand signs releasing three jutsu, leaving them trapped in a hole in the ground full of water with just a few inches of air to be able to breathe while treading water.

That had been sobering; Sasuke knew he wouldn't be ready to fight the traitor before he was at least that fast at ninjutsu.

They had been scheduled to start elemental training in a few months, Sasuke could already do fire manupulation, it was the trademark of the clan. Kakashi had told him using fire ninjutsu only the beginning; there was also direct manipulation and eventually the ability to perform seal-less ninjutsu. He had demonstrated this put just putting his hand to his mouth and spitting out a Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu without using hand signs and the heat off it had been so intense that it was bordering on being white hot.

Sasuke closed his eyes and went back to sleep. If he didn't take care of his body all that training could be harmful. He was to meet with Sakura later, she had found a possible lead last week and they had to look into it.

* * *

**Team Kakashi, the following day, in front of the Hokage Tower**

Kakashi had shown up earlier than normal. He was still half an hour late, but the genin would take what they could get at this point.

Sasuke wasn't in the best of moods, he had wasted the entire afternoon at the library and the lead had turned out to be a dud. He had felt a little guilty at having Sakura spending so much time on it when she obviously wasn't that interested in the research but rather did it to spend time with him. Friends were important, and someone like Sakura would go far in the system. She would probably end up as an advisor. Sasuke wasn't sure if the girl was suited for the normal shinobi life. Much too soft.  
To make it up to her for spending so much time on this, he had treated her to dinner. She had lit up at that. "Like a date?" He had shot her down. "Like friends." Instantly deflating her. It was what he could offer; he didn't have time for 'stuff' nor were she his type.

Kakashi waved them to follow him into the building. Entering the mission office. He turned around to his students, smiling at them under his mask, turning back to the Hokage. "A C-ranked mission please, their initiation period is done, it's time to sink or swim."

* * *

**Academy Antics: Shogi?**

Shikamaru (Age 10) was lying in the grass in the park. The clouds were nice today. He could hear Chōji crinkle with a bag of chips in the background. Kiba and Akamaru were running around on the grass further down the hill while looking up towards them.

An orange form passed into his view a few times. "Oi Naruto, what the hell are you doing?" They had finally been able to talk Hinata to skip class with them, allowing Naruto to come. The guy was now crawling around in the tree to the left of Shikamaru. "I'm bored." Naruto kept crawling around. It was disturbing his peace. Shikamaru sat up in the grass with a low "Troublesome."

"Come down here Naruto. I'm going to teach you a game; I usually play with my father." Shikamaru got up from the grass and went over to the table on the hill; he sat down next to Chōji.

Naruto bounded down from the tree and hopped onto the bench on the other side. Hinata had been following a butterfly around, intrigued by what was happening she had come over and sat down next to Naruto.

Shikamaru put down a board he had brought from home and began arranging the pieces. Half an hour later Naruto had finally understood how most of the pieces worked. It had been a hard battle to keep his attention.

"Naruto, my dad told me this, it may help you in understanding the game. In shogi you fight to protect your king, imagine if that king was someone precious to you and you'd sacrifice your pieces on the board to protect that king." Searching Naruto's face for clues on if he had gotten it, Naruto seemed to be in deep thought. "What is my king is a girl? How does that work?" Kiba who had come up to the table, promptly collapsed from laughter and was rolling down the hill. Shikamaru shot the girl sitting next to Naruto a glance; she seemed to shrink into herself a little at the implication of what Naruto had just said. Naruto continued. "Surely it wouldn't be a king then, or what if it was more than one person, could multiple persons be kings?" Shikamaru started to laugh, seemed that Naruto had only gotten part of the point. "Ah well, let's just play, perhaps it will become clearer." Shikamaru had soundly beaten the blonde, even while playing to teach him the game.

Suddenly he was struck by an idea. "Naruto, how about this: Say this piece here is a person you have to protect; all these other pieces are things you can use to make traps. You have to make traps to catch and kill the king of the enemy and you have to make traps to protect your own." Naruto frowned at the board, and then nodded slowly. After three more games, Shikamaru was still beating him. Naruto was constantly asking how the pieces moved. He was about to give up, then the game suddenly got interesting.

A piece he had moved to take a piece, which had moved badly, was taken. Naruto had gotten it after all. He had been having a hard time remembering how all the pieces worked but had now almost gotten it down.

They played quite a few games during the afternoon until Naruto had given up; he hadn't even gotten close to Shikamaru.

Shikamaru had been enjoying their games, while Naruto wasn't hard to beat, some of the moves were interesting, traps within traps. The game that had been the closest Naruto had actually managed to take a valuable piece. Having set up a four-layered trap to take the piece, Shikamaru hadn't expected Naruto to read ahead that far and had gotten careless.

He would have to poke Naruto for more games in the future. Naruto was playing entirely on instinct but seeing the game as traps and counter traps meant his imagination made for some very interesting plays. Hinata had just been sitting completely still; absorbed in the game, perhaps he should try to get her to play as well.

* * *

**A/N**:

This marks the end of this short first story arc. Hope you are enjoying it so far.

My apologies at the Kakashi bar scene, I've been rewriting it all day, and still not happy with it. Writing a conversation that is one-sided is rather hard to do. Going to have to reread **HPMOR** a few times to pick up some pointers on how to do it.

I also apologize for the terrible sand pun, it was completely unintended, didn't even notice it until I was proof reading the second time.

Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu = Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique (Signature move for Uchiha in the cannon)

Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu = Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique


	6. Chapter 6: Departure

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto or any associated characters.

* * *

**A/N**:

Welcome to chapter six of Sister Lost. This chapter marks the start of the second story arc.

This wasn't the originally planned story arc, which is why it's so late. I had originally planned a take on the Wave arc. However as someone pointed out in the reviews, it has been done to death. I had written half a chapter and I hated it, even with the character changes, there were limits to the changes in the story, and it didn't make all that much sense in this universe. So instead, I scrapped it. Hope you enjoy the original content I've been working on instead.

I give to you. **The Trouble at Three Peaks.**

I do not have any beta readers so spelling, characterization and such are all on me, feel free to point out any and all glaring errors. Especially since English isn't my first language. I will try to avoid all the regular pitfalls, but it will be unavoidable that things slip through; feedback will allow me to fix mistakes and prevent future ones. So tear my grammar and spelling a new one if you find errors.

As always thanks for the reviews much appreciated.

I'm going to have to look around for a beta or two, errors are starting to crop up. I've been looking at the beta reader list, how the hell am I supposed to find anyone in that mess, 3700 hits that match my criteria, and most are registered upwards of 10 years ago, how does one even find people still active here.

On a side note, I'm putting chapter status on my profile, since I have no idea what updating will look here in the new year, at least a chapter per weekend (Besides that I may or may not have time to work on chapters during the normal week days).

* * *

**Chapter 6: Departure**

**Team Kakashi, mission office, Hokage tower**

"Hey! Hey! Jiji, why was that old man we passed in the hall being dragged away by ANBU?" Naruto had been confused as to why the ANBU was arresting an old man. Hiruzen took a drag on his pipe, exhaling through his nose. "That man had requested a C-rank mission to escort him to the Land of the Waves. We had intel come in from that area that missing-nin by the name of Zabuza has been hired to prevent the bridge being build. The mission would really be A-rank."

Kakashi nodded, he had taken out a small book. "Hmm, Zabuza. Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Hidden Mist. On a mission like that, it would be pure luck if the genin and client all made it out alive. An A-rank like that could only be done by a Jōnin, or possibly two to ensure the clients safety."

The Hokage looked at the group. "Withholding information is a very serious crime, even if he couldn't pay there would have been ways around it, like getting a Daimyō to support it in the interest of diplomacy, or set up an agreement to pay the amount for the proper mission in rates after completion."

The children looked a little pale at the thought of the punishment the man would probably receive. Hiruzen smiled a little. "This is not matters the three of your should be concerned with however. The mission I have for your team Kakashi is the following. You are to escort a person to the Daimyō of the Land of the Three Peaks. She was rescued from a bandit camp we raiding as another mission a month ago. She is finally strong enough to make the hard journey and it is set for departure tomorrow. Besides the standard pay for a C-rank mission the Daimyō has issued a chit for the purchase of arctic gear for your team and the young woman you will be escorting." Hiruzen waved his hand and the ANBU stationed at the door opened in.

A young woman in the late teens stepped in. She wore a beautiful traditional white silk kimono covered in a light blue snowflake pattern. Her face thin, possibly from starvation, still held the signs of her beauty from before the capture, her face framed by shoulder length pale blonde hair bordering on white, her eyes the color of ice, a pale blue that reflected the pattern on her kimono.

"She will go under the name of Yūki for the trip; we cannot allow information of the true identity to slip out so you will only be given the code name and the destination. I will leave it in your hands to get everyone outfitted today Kakashi. You are to depart at 10 tomorrow morning." Hiruzen handed Kakashi the scroll with the information and the seal of approval for gear acquisition on the Daimyō's expense.

Kakashi sighed to himself, as much as he'd like to just let the kids handle the task while he went to do something else. He couldn't ignore an order like that, and he wasn't entirely sure how the stores would react to Naruto going shopping. He didn't really want to see what kind of Arctic gear the orange kid would come up with. It certainly wouldn't be very stealthy.

* * *

**Hinata and Yūki, clothing store**

Hinata and Yūki had gone off by themselves to another store while the others were hunting for survival gear. Yūki's cloth had been in tatters when she had been liberated from the bandit camp, and she had spent the last month in a hospital recovering from the ordeal.

After they had gotten most of the necessities, Yūki had looked at the small girl that was supposed to escort her through the dangers of traveling to the Three Peaks this time of year.

Three Peaks was a small country, the country had very little agriculture but had an abundance of natural resources, much of it mined from the three mountains that gave the country its names. The capitol was located in a valley. During the winter months, the country was walled off from the rest of the world due to bad weather. It was a rough trip, but Yūki was anxious to get home.

She wasn't happy that the ones that would be escorting her through the dangerous conditions would be children. She had been on a trip two months ago when the roads were still open and her guard was slain in an ambush.

"Hyūga-san, I mean no offence, but is your team capable of protecting me on this trip? The conditions are pretty rough." The girl seemed to shrink into herself a little, uncomfortable to be put on the spot like that. "Uhm, I uh, we are stronger than we look." Hinata said in a quiet voice. That didn't exactly inspire Yūki with a lot of confidence. She smiled a little to herself; it was funny how the girl completely changed when she weren't with her teammates. She decided to have some fun at the young girl's expense, she had seen the little blonde boy coming into the store was looking around for them. It had been a long time she had a good laugh. Shy girls like that weren't too hard to embarrass.

"Hyūga-san, you do know you cannot bring that jacket up in the mountains right? You'd freeze to death. Take it off and we'll see if we cannot find you a proper jacket." The Heiress looked at her, let out a small sigh and then started to take the jacket off. Yūki grinned, this was going to be priceless.

As Hinata had gotten her jacket off, Naruto walked up to them. "Hey Kakashi says we're going to find some supplies now that we are done getting tents and other necessities. He wanted to hear if you were done, so we could get the gear distributed?" Hinata's eyes instantly widened with a small look of fear. Yūki was about of burst into laughter. 'Knew there was something between them, wonder who will blush first?'  
Then she saw the huge bruise just below the collarbone. Hinata turned towards Naruto on reflex; Naruto instantly looked guilty when he saw the bruise. Yūki looked at the two. 'Had the boy hit her?'

Naruto closed his eyes while letting out a sigh. "I thought you said it didn't hurt that much Hinata-chan, if it still looks like that after a day with those cool salves of yours then it must have." The boy looked sad, turned away from the two and started walking away. Yūki was starting to feel guilty. The girl had been trying to hide the bruise and she had forced her to expose it. 'So much for getting a laugh out of this.'

Hinata turned towards the rack with all the jackets designed for subzero temperatures. She had lied to him, now that it had been exposed; she hated herself for it. They didn't keep stuff from each other, she had decided to hide the pain from the hit since it hadn't been Naruto-kun's fault. Trying to put it aside, she found a white jacket with a matching pair of snow pants. Browsing a little more to clear her mind before heading over to the store where the others were. She found few white pairs of pants and white V-neck shirts like the purple ones she usually wore to keep being able to blend in if she had to discard any clothing during a fight, picking up a hood as well if she had to hide that hair of hers.

The two girls finally joined the others. Kakashi had gotten everyone storage scrolls. One to carry camping gear in, one for survival gear and they were now browsing for food supplies to seal into the more expensive stasis scrolls.

Sasuke was looking at the scrolls, this was going to put a serious hamper on how many book scrolls he could carry if he had to have it all and combat gear in his pouch. He had asked Kakashi about the possibility of sealing scrolls into other scrolls. It was theoretically possible, but you would have to be an Fūinjutsu master to make those, even then, you could only seal the same kind of sealing scrolls into a scroll.  
Kakashi had elaborated on it for the benefit of all three genin. Fūinjutsu was a dying art form, there had been entire clans that dedicated to them in the past, but they had all been wiped out due to fear of the potential Fūinjutsu had. Kakashi admitted to be proficient at Fūinjutsu, his sensei had after all been the Yondaime, who had been the second greatest Fūinjutsu master there had been in the village for a hundred years. Sasuke briefly wondered who the best had been, he knew about the Yondaime, but he hadn't ever seen anything indicating someone had been better than him.

When they were done the group split up, it had taken longer than expected to gear up. Kakashi had ordered the genin to rest for the rest of the day, not that they would listen to him, but he didn't want to give them an excuse to complain about being tired after they had set out tomorrow. Kakashi had followed the woman they were to escort back to the hotel where she was now staying. While the children had headed off together. Kakashi had smiled at seeing them head off like a group. Sasuke had warmed to his teammates these last few weeks and it had made Kakashi proud, he had been afraid that his young charge would be so focused on just getting stronger that he would have alienated his teammates.

* * *

**Sasuke, evening, hidden library, main Uchiha house**

Sasuke was sitting with his head down on the desk. His teammates were starting to frustrate him. Today he had finally talked Naruto into full on match with him. Naruto had been declining spars with him all week.

To avoid giving Naruto an advantage they had started the match standing 25 yards from each other. Just before they started, Naruto had shot Hinata a glance and lowered his head a bit, before looking at him again.

As Hinata had declared the match start, the blonde had accelerated at him with a tremendous speed. It was fast, but not fast enough for Sasuke to react, responding to the head on attack, he had thrown six shuriken at the orange blur heading towards him.

Just before they hit, Naruto had stomped both his feet into the ground and was now sailing towards Sasuke in the air still straight towards him. Sasuke had expected this, he had started running through the hand seals for Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu, spewing out a large ball of fire towards the boy as soon as he was airborne.

Naruto had quickly made two clones at the sight of the fireball heading towards him. One clone had grabbed his arm and had used fact that it had just been falling and not following the forward momentum of the real Naruto to drag him below the fireball. Just a little below them another clone was heading towards Sasuke, Naruto had kicked the clone with a chakra boost further propelling him directly at Sasuke to make up for the lower altitude. Naruto landed in front of Sasuke completely arresting his momentum using chakra to stick to the ground.

Sasuke had been caught off guard, he hadn't considered using the technique like that, Naruto had instantly dropped low and instead of the palm to the torso Sasuke had originally been expecting with that head on attack, done a sweeping kick towards his legs.

Sasuke quickly replaced himself with a leaf on a tree on the edge of the clearing that was the Third Training Ground. 'Shit this was a mistake.' A small click was heard and Sasuke instantly jumped back into the clearing. While swearing at himself. 'Stupid stupid stupid. Never go into a forest while fighting Naruto.' He had managed a quick glance behind him as he jumped. Naruto had started using other stuff than just branches. A Large deadfall trap had been triggered, just before he landed back on the ground he had seen the heavy log that had swung just over the branch he had landed on with the Kawarimi. He hated all the damn clones Naruto probably had setting up traps while he fought, the bastard had probably created the trap clones, at the same time as he had made the two for that impressive aerial stunt.

Unfortunately, the trap had done its job even if it hadn't hit him. Sasuke had been distracted enough by it that he hadn't noticed he had jumped directly at Naruto. He had twisted in the air trying to kick the blonde, but he had simply blocked it with ease and then hit him with a palm strike on the side of the leg he had kicked with, sending him tumbling to the ground in pain, surrendering.

His two teammates were ahead of him, Hinata with her bloodlimit and Naruto with that incredile amount of Chakra. Sasuke knew he was good and he was still better than all the others from the old class, but with the Sharingan still dormant he was lacking his equalizer to the two monsters he was teamed up with.

They were fast, Sasuke figured they were as fast or faster than most Chūnin, there was still a long way to go towards the speed of someone like Kakashi, but still incredibly fast for genin.

Their attacks were debilitating. The Hyūga with her Jūken could disable him completely if she had hit him with a strike like the one Naruto had done. He shivered a little at the thought of Naruto hitting with a chakra enhanced blow, it would have snapped his leg like a twig. Hinata used her Jūken for sparring but Naruto hadn't actually used the chakra enhancement for anything yet, since if he managed to get past the guard of either of them, he could possibly kill them by accident. It would probably be a long time before Naruto dared to use something like that against anyone but Kakashi for training.

To make matters worse about their little spar. Hinata had gotten up from the ground afterwards and gone over to give him a hand getting up, as he was pulled up, she had whispered. "He was holding back on his speed you know."

This was so frustrating, he needed to awaken the Sharingan soon or _he_ would be the burden.

* * *

**Hinata, late evening, her room, main Hyūga house**

Hinata was sitting in the middle of her room. She had taken off her jacket and shirt. Sitting in a sports bra and the reinforced mesh, she wore beneath her shirt. The sports bra was a relatively new addition to her wardrobe; damn things had been growing rapidly in size the last half year. She had started out by binding them, to avoid Naruto noticing, if he stopped trying to hit her there with as much sparring the two didshe would end up with hole in her guard. It had quickly become impossible however, she had to wrap them so tight that it had started to restrict her movement some, and in the end had been convinced by Kurenai that she needed a real bra that would keep them out of the way while fighting. She had great respect for her sensei, but she also knew that her sensei wasn't the strongest taijutsu user, so she had sought out another close combat expert. Anko-san was kinda odd, but she had reassured her that her 'asserts' as she called them wouldn't really be in the way when she fought. In fact she had said that they were often an advantage. Hinata wasn't sure what she had meant by that, and the way the older woman had looked at her while saying that, had been kinda creepy.

Gingerly lifting the mesh out and down away from the bruise, she took a little of the salve from the bowl next to her. It was something she had made specifically for this; it was much stronger than the stuff the clan normally made.

Most of the capital the Hyūga clan generated that wasn't from missions came from healing salves and lotions. With their excellent Chakra control, many women of the clan that couldn't fight would often become medin-nin. This had led to many studying the effect of various herbs and remedies effect directly after application, with the Byakugan. Improving their skills at making them to a point where remedies made by the Hyūga was now the standard for the Konohagakure hospital to use.

She let out a small sigh of relief when the cool gel touched the bruise. A cold and prickly sensation was caused by the salve as it started treating the damage and numbing the pain. The bruise had to be gone by tomorrow there was no way around it. Naruto had looked to guilty and hurt that she had lied to him, she couldn't wear her normal jacket for this mission, and there was still two weeks of traveling until they reached the border to Three Peaks. Therefore, the bruise had to go to avoid feeling guilty the whole trip. This was also the first time; he had hit her hard enough that it wasn't gone after a single application of her salve.

She hadn't meant to lie to him like that, but it hadn't been his fault that he hit her like that, she had asked him to not hold back. Screamed at him even, she had caught him training on his own seeing that he wasn't even moving around half as fast as he could when they sparred, it had infuriated her, she had been winning all the spars lately, and it turns out it's because he was holding back. They had promised that they would never do that, only if they both always went all out, would they be capable of moving forward and become stronger together.

She closed her eyes relishing the cold feeling on her skin as the constant pain had been muted, thinking back on the incident.

Naruto had been hurt by the accusation. He had looked at the ground and just mumbled. "I didn't want to hurt you." That had just made her angrier, yelling at him until he finally agreed to stop doing that.

A minute later, she understood why he had done what he did. They had taken up their usual sparring positions, as they started. Naruto had rocketed towards her, almost literally. It was much faster than she anticipated, he was actually moving slightly faster than she could, without the maneuverability of course, but it had caught her completely off guard and he had handed a solid blow just below her collarbone. It had hurt like hell, knocking her off her feet. It wasn't because he was afraid of hurting her, it was because he couldn't control it completely, so he couldn't dial the attack down if it actually got past the guard.

She had lain on the grass for a few moments, it had knocked the wind out of her to fall on her back, and her chest was screaming at her in pain. She had looked at herself with her bloodlimit to make sure that she hadn't cracked any ribs.

Naruto had been standing looking at her in concern, as she sat up a large amount of pain had radiated out through her entire torso. It had taken all she had to not wince or cry out in pain. He had asked if she was hurt, all she had managed a small "No." Getting up had been equally painful, she had excused herself with a small lie about having to be present for dinner and the ramen would have to wait until another day. Quickly departing their spot to go home and get something for the pain.

It was going to be a long day tomorrow. Naruto hadn't spoken to her at all while buying the supplies and left right after, it had made her chest hurt more than getting hit ever had, and she didn't know why. She was used to disappointment and disdain from other clan members. 'Why had this been different?'

She looked at the mesh shirt. Anko had gotten her to wear that. Mesh had come immensely popular amongst kunoichi, over the last decade. Anko had explained her why. It would stop most shuriken from going too deeply into the flesh, with the Hyūga salves and medical jutsu, if wounds weren't too deep scarring could be prevented completely just with the salves. Deeper wounds from kunai and other things that would force their way in through the mesh would still need medical jutsu to close without scar tissue forming. Most kunoichi took a lot of pride in being good enough to be almost completely free of scars.

Hinata had used a lot of time studying remedies in the last few years, much of her evenings after curfew had been spend reading medical texts and practicing on her various bruises from the day. Some day she wanted to learn medical jutsu, but it required a lot of control and chakra to force a body to heal. The control she had, but she was still a long way off on the Chakra.

* * *

**Sasuke, morning 9:50, main gate to Konohagakure**

Sasuke was leaning against the side of the gate, reading a book. He wasn't sure why he bothered to be on time with that sensei or his team. He had taken in on himself however, if Yūki showed up on time there needed to be at least someone to keep an eye on her until the rest showed up.

It wasn't long until Yūki showed up, she had gone over to him and was now looking around for the rest of the team. She was looking at him. "So, where are the others, it was a 10 right?" Sasuke shrugged "hn" Yūki had narrowed her eyes at him and then almost yelled at him. "Do you have a problem with me?" Sasuke looked up from his book. "Not really." What on earth was her problem? He just wanted to be left to his book until the other arrived.

"Yo" Sasuke almost jumped, Kakashi was early and he had managed to get next to them without being noticed again. Damn it. He needed to learn how to be that fast. 'So apparently our sensei is on time for real missions.' He mused to himself.

Naruto showed up a minute later. That equally caught Sasuke off guard, the dobe wasn't wearing his orange suit. "Did someone finally sneak in a burn your cloth dobe?" Naruto looked a little pale at the prospect. "No, Kakashi ordered me to wear something to blend in for this mission." Sasuke grinned, perhaps he could convince Kakashi to keep that a standing order for all missions.

Naruto was wearing a white set of pants, with a light blue t-shirt. His gold chain was visible, with the little gold lavender flower hanging from it.

The Hyūga arrived ten seconds to ten. The girl was precise in all things it seemed. She wasn't wearing her jacket today, that was kinda odd as well, quickly wondering if Kakashi given both of them an order. Sasuke studied the girl. He could understand why the dobe was all over that. She was prettier and shapelier than the other two girls of their old class. He would have to find someone better looking once the traitor was dead, not wanting to be outdone by the dobe.

It would be hard to outdo a Hyūga, but there was no way around that. Uchiha and Hyūga were forbidden to have relations by law, dating back thirty years, due to an attempt to unite the two greatest clans with an arranged marriage some 45 years ago. The two children born of the union had both been blind from birth. When the dormant Sharingan had activated when they were older it had driven them insane and both had taken their own lives within a year of it happening.

Kakashi snapped his Icha Icha book closed. Yūki had shot the Jōnin a look when he had taken it out. Sasuke had noticed it hadn't been a look of disgust the book usually elicited from females. 'Great more perverts.'

"Since we're all here team, we might as well head out. " Kakashi turned and started walking out of the gate with a closed book in his left hand, giving the two Chūnin in the guard booth a bored wave with the other. As soon as they were out of the town, Kakashi had opened the book again walking with practiced ease while reading.

* * *

**Hinata, early hours, 6 days later**

Hinata was sitting enjoying the weather as the morning light was starting to creep in. It her guard shift was ending soon and they would be onwards on their journey towards the Three Peaks.

It had been a good last few days; Naruto had started talking with her again. Naruto always had the shift in the middle of the night, it was usually the hardest shift because of the interrupted sleeping cycles, but the blonde never showed any signs of fatigue, so he had taken it on him to always have that so the others didn't have a less than optimal day. This meant that the one with the first shift would be the one with the morning shift the next that, who would then have a night off after that.

The first night Hinata had been of the first shift. When she had woken Naruto for his shift he had just looked at her with a soft look in the blue that was his eyes, then whispered "Sorry for hurting you." Walking past her, producing a dozen clones, which took off into the woods. Walking towards the fire with eyes as slits then sitting down with his back to the fire staring at the dark. Hinata had smiled at him; he had forgiven her and would eventually forgive himself. Looking at how he avoided looking into the fire to keep being able to distinguish movement in the dark. She had briefly pondered how inconvenient it must be for others with being unable to see in the dark.

He had become himself again after that instead of the eerily silent Naruto they had been walking with the first day.

Smiling while thinking of the last few days, he had brought that Shogi board.

The second day they had been walking, Naruto had made eight clones. Six of them taking position around them, a pair front, on the flank and in the back. The original had then pulled out the little magnetic Shogi board and had a clone hold it while he was matching wits with himself in the form of the last clone.

Kakashi had chided Naruto that he needed to pay more attention. She had shaken her head at the hypocrisy, their sensei not even looking up from the book in front of his face. Sasuke had been attempting to read while walking as well, but still stumbled a little occasionally.  
Naruto had taken it as a challenge, and produced another twenty clones to surround them keeping a watch out. Kakashi had looked amused at that. "Ablative Narutos." Naruto had spent the next 5 minutes trying to get Kakashi to tell him what ablative meant. Sasuke had finally become annoyed enough at the blonde to explain it to him. Naruto had walked in silence for a few minutes thinking about something. He had then broken out in a huge grin and returned to the pair of clones with the shogi board. That expression always meant Naruto had come up with something interesting. Naruto was a genius, there was no doubt in Hinata's mind about that, he wasn't intelligent in the way Sasuke or Shikamaru was, but his solutions to problems were often nothing short of brilliant, if a bit unorthodox. A few minutes later, the original bowed his head in defeat as the clone managed to win. Hinata had told him that if the clone won being him as well, he would technically be the winner, which had cheered him up some.

A small presence snapped her out of her thoughts, a weak killing-intend started pressing down on her. Naruto was tossing and turning wildly, she studied him with her Byakugan. There were small bits of red flowing amongst the sea that was his normal chakra. Naruto suddenly sat up with a soundless scream, bathed in sweat panting heavily. The sudden movement had startled Hinata a little. As Naruto caught his breath and calmed down the killing-intend slowly dissipated.

Naruto locked eyes with Hinata, then closing his eyes for a minute before getting up and sitting down beside her at the fire. Hinata had seen that red chakra once before when they were messing about with clones, but this was something else.

Turning her head to the boy, this wasn't necessary, but it was good custom to actually turn towards people as a Hyūga, people found it unnerving to take to someone who didn't have to look at them to see them.

"Nightmare?" Naruto just nodded. "It was about the night I became a genin." Naruto had a pained and sad look on his face. "I've been having them a lot lately, the sleeping cycle like this helps, first time I've had one in a week, but they have become constant when sleeping normally." Hinata just looked at him sensing there was more to it than just nightmares. Naruto continued. "I have something we need to talk about. Can you see if the others are completely asleep?" Hinata studied the three sleeping forms then nodded. "I've been remembering exactly what happened the night I became genin, and… and…" Naruto took a deep breath and let it out through his teeth. "I wasn't myself that night, I now remember everything that happened, and every detail like it was slow motion. How I swung down the large shuriken. How it bit into Mizuki's neck, as it moved through the first half of an inch, spraying blood on my hand and arm. How the spray became more as it moved further through it, blood hitting my body and face, how it got into my mouth and how I _liked_ the taste." Naruto broke down; Hinata was at a loss for words. She scooted a little closer to the now sobbing boy and put her arm around his shoulders, just letting him get it all out. Glad that he had finally told her more about the night, as disturbing as that description had been. Naruto managed to steady himself for a moment. "I have more I need to tell you, but not here. When we get back to Konoha, and are alone."

Kakashi grinned a little and shook his head after he had awoken; Naruto was sleeping with his head on Hinata's shoulder with her using Byakugan to get around her apparent immobility. It was one of the results of her training, Hinata could now keep it active for hours before feeling the drain, it was different in combat, but in a rested state like this, she now almost generated enough to make up for the drain.

They woke everyone and put out the fire. It was quick to strike the camp since they hadn't used the tents, it was a mild fall here in the Land of Fire, once they got to Three Peaks it would be a completely different matter, the country was always covered in snow and the fall season was full harsh weather and blizzards.

* * *

**Academy Antics: Birthday**

Naruto (Age 11) woke up in a bad mood. It was that day again. October tenth, birthday and anniversary of the biggest catastrophe in the history of Konohagakure. People were extra mean to him on this day. He wasn't sure why, he had been hit by a bottle thrown by a drunk man a few years ago, and had since then kept away from everyone on this day.

He had spent the morning lying on top of the Hokage Monument people rarely came up there. His excellent hearing picked up on people ascending the stairs to his hiding spot. He jumped to his feet and was just about to run the opposite direction. "Oi, Naruto, don't make us chase after you, it's too troublesome." 'Shikamaru? What was he doing here? How did he even know he would be here?' Naruto stopped and looked at the stairs, as the pineapple haired boy came into view, behind him trailed Hinata. A couple of more people came into view, Chōji, Kiba and Ino came into view as well. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Hinata was worried about you, you disappeared on her last year, and she asked me for help in finding out what you were up to. Troublesome woman" Shikamaru muttered the last part. Hinata had harassed him until he had given up and gone with her to find out any information they could on Naruto on this day. They had found that not only had he become an orphan during the attack but it was also his birthday. Hinata had decided, they needed to cheer him up on a day like this and had talked the others into coming along.

Naruto sat back down looking out over the town. "It's not really a happy day for me guys, I'd rather be alone." Hinata looked him. "And that is why we're here; no one should be alone on their birthday, even with something like this." They sat down around him.

It had been a nice afternoon; Hinata had baked a cake and what they had gotten of it, before Chōji inhaled the rest of it, had been good. Hinata had given him a gold chain necklace, which was by far the most expensive gift. It was also the first gift Naruto had ever been given.

Even Shikamaru had given him a gift, given how troublesome that must have been for him to get Naruto appreciated it almost as much as the gift from Hinata. It was a miniature foldable magnetic Shogi board. Shikamaru promptly kicked his ass in a game on the small board.

It had started become evening, Naruto was still sitting on the monument; Hinata was sitting next to him, with all the others having gone home. He put his hand to his neck, touching the chain. For the first time he was actually happy on his birthday, even looking forward to the next year a little. Closing his eyes as a tear rolled down his cheek, he was finally starting to feel like he belonged somewhere. It was all because of the girl sitting next to him.

* * *

**A/N**:

Hope you're enjoying it. As you may have noticed it took a lot longer to go online than the previous ones, but it took a while and a lot of rewrites to get Yūki as I wanted her (Damn OCs)

There will be another chapter out over the weekend. Chapter 7: Red Snow

We're probably heading towards more combat heavy in the coming chapters of this arc. I almost called it the Land of Snow when creating the arc, I then looked it up and turns out they had done a movie about it (Which I haven't seen) So decided to make up a country since it has no relation to the movie.

I've had a few reviews clamoring for elaboration on the back story, and I'll just say this:  
There are a quite a few things that has happened in the 5 years between this story and the point where it deviated from the cannon. It will be revealed in chunks as flashbacks slowly, there will not be a chapter that suddenly explains it.

About this chapter you may have noticed that I kinda bash the cannon about the Wave arc. It is my stance on it, they weren't very far away from Konoha when they caught the demon brothers, Kakashi should have turned around and gone back when it happened. It is not just a question of the money, but all three of his students and the person he was supposed to protect were almost cut in half in their very first encounter. It's peacetime, had it been wartime and they had been forced to complete the mission no matter what I would have been all for it. However, Kakashi breaks his sensei's (and own) rule on dragging them along. He is not thinking of his students. It would have taken a short while to drop them off at the town and then bring another Jōnin along.

Until next time readers, same bat place, same bat channel.


	7. Chapter 7: Red Snow

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto or any associated characters.

* * *

**A/N**:

Welcome to chapter seven of Sister Lost.

We're just going to continue where we left off with **The Trouble at Three Peaks**.

A quick warning this hasn't been proofread as much as I normally do and will be iterated through once more next week. Reason explained in the end Author Note :)

Now, once more that same ol' song: I do not have any beta readers so spelling, characterization and such are all on me, feel free to point out any and all glaring errors. Especially since English isn't my first language. I will try to avoid all the regular pitfalls, but it will be unavoidable that things slip through; feedback will allow me to fix mistakes and prevent future ones. So tear my grammar and spelling a new one if you find errors.

Sigh Beta reader list, that thing is the bane of my existence.

Moved all the responses to reviews to the end A/N instead it was starting to take a lot of space here. Only leaving one thing for this time.

Happy with the choice of replacing the Wave arc with this, it is shaping up to be a nice arc, and it is going to be quite a bit longer than what I had plotted out for Wave. Also people keep making comparisons to events that happens in the movies, haven't seen a single one of those, its filler content, meaning it will keep the status quo. I hate there being no character development, fights are great and all, but I'd rather see progression. So avoided all the movies, haven't seen a lot of the filler content either, basically I don't watch filler unless it has Hinata :D

* * *

**Chapter 7: Red Snow**

**Team Kakashi and Yūki, 9 days later, starting the ascension of the pass into Land of the Three Peaks**

They had reached a plateau on the ascend, Yūki was resting as the kids was changing into the arctic gear, it was going to get very cold once they got a mile or so further up the steep road that lead into the pass.

The past two weeks had been uneventful; she had taken a dislike for the leader and the boy with the black hair. Both seemed too apathetic for being her bodyguards. The boy had the emotional range of a rock with a set of facial expressions ranging from bored to slight disdain, while the leader had his nose in a book at all times, the book was interesting though and she had managed to convince him to lend her one. Apparently, he had a whole library of them in that pouch of his. She had never seen him pull out a scroll and unseal things as the children did. The boy with the black hair was trying to emulate the leader and had started reading while walking most of the time as well.

The other two were another matter entirely.

The blonde kid had an endless source of energy. He was always talking, mostly with the girl. He tried to include her as well, once he had gotten tired of pestering her about if she were a princess, he had stopped being quite so annoying. A month in captivity and then a month too weak to do anything in a hospital, having someone to converse with was a nice change. He was per default cheerful, there had been some mornings, where the otherwise energetic boy had been strangely silent, and had just walked next to Hyūga-san.

The girl was the nicest person she had ever met, she didn't say all that much but she was kind to her. The eyes were a little creepy, especially the part about her being able to see through things. Yūki was having a hard time imagining someone like that being a trained warrior. She had woken with a small cry one night; the girl was sitting at the fire, and had just asked her to join her. The girl had prodded a little and got her to talk a little about what had happened.

It had been a horrible month, first she saw her guards slain, the captain of the guards had been a friend to her, and she had seen him butchered like an animal. The apologetic look he had given her as he was struck down was haunting her dreams. She hadn't been able to continue past that and had just been crying while the girl had offered words of comfort.

"It's not your fault, I know you blame yourself, but your friend gave his life so you could have a chance. Feelings of guilt about your friend and anger at the bandits will only leave you broken hearted and cold. It is not a place you want to go."The girl had looked at her with pain painted on her face.

"Instead find goals in your life, and move forward." There had been councilors visiting her in the hospital, this was something that one of them could have said. Not something, a girl who merrily chatted the day away with her boyfriend should say.

Besides the incredibly gently side, the girl turned professional on the drop of a dime. The personality shift had caught her by surprise. A week ago, they had been walking through rain and she put her foot into a puddle, which turned out to be a few inches deep. She fell to the ground, the girl rushed over with veins bulging around those white eyes of hers. Demanding that she didn't try to get up and instead removed her shoe and pulled up the pant leg. Going down on her knees, she pulled out a scroll from her bag and quickly had a piece of plastic out, keeping the area out of the rain, quickly drying it off and then applied some incredibly strong smelling stuff to it. The pain had dulled almost immediately. "You have sprained your ankle, this will help, but you need to stay off it for a day."

The leader had reached into his pouch behind him, probably wanting to make camp right then instead. Without turning away from her leg, the girl had just held up her hand in a fist. "Naruto-kun, go make something she can sit in." The boy had obeyed her at once turning while splitting into 20. That ability was so amazing; she had never seen anyone work like that. It had taken 5 minutes then he came back with a wooden chair held together by wire on two sticks for carrying, all but seven of the boy disappeared and they went on with six of them carrying her. Presumably, the seventh was the real Uzumaki.

She had given up trying to embarrass Hyūga-san, anything she could come up with had been brushed off by the girl and had elicited no reaction from the boy. She only got a reaction out of the girl once. After they had started on the road again, with her in the chair, she had asked what it was that had been applied on her ankle; it was unlike any remedy she had ever tried.  
Surprisingly it had been the blonde that answered almost shouted in excitement. "That is Hinata-chan's salve, she makes it on her own, isn't she awesome?" That had caused the girl to blush lightly.

Two days later when they had stopped for the night, the girl had pulled a cake out from a scroll, and wished the blonde a happy 13th birthday. The boy had seemed surprised that it was his birthday. No one else on the team had known it either, just the girl. She had given him a tiny present, inside was a small circle of gold with a whirl meticulously engraved on it. "Made this one as well Hinata-chan?" The boy had asked with a huge smile on his face, the girl had nodded smiling back at the boy. He instantly took off the necklace and put the small charm on it. Looking at the necklace as he put it back on Yūki realized the symbol was in white on the shirt the boy wore. A whirl and a lavender flower on the necklace, she regarded the blue haired girl, '_subtle_'. The boy had enveloped Hyūga-san in a gigantic hug that looked like it might crack a few ribs.  
'Damn thirteen, the children escorting me are only just becoming teenagers.'

Kakashi spoke up snapping her out of her thoughts. It was time to move on if they wanted to be able to find a shelter for the harsh winds further up the slope.

* * *

**Team Kakashi and Yūki, the next day, on their way through the pass**

Kakashi was standing in the middle of the pass looking at the road in front of them. A large avalanche had blocked it off; they couldn't traverse that snow with a civilian in tow, turning towards Yūki. "Is there another way through?" Yūki thought for a moment. "There should be a ravine about a mile back that runs parallel with the pass and rejoins it about 30-35 miles further ahead." Nodding Kakashi motioned them to back track for the ravine.

They had found the ravine, which thankfully it seemed to be clear. After walking through it for a couple of hours, Kakashi was starting to have a bad feeling about it.

"Do people normally travel through this ravine?" He had turned towards Yūki again. "No, it is rarely used, the snow and ice on the sides are often unstable in these months, you normally only use this if you have an escort." Kakashi narrowed his eye. 'Shit' Looking at his students. "Be on your guard, these is something wrong, this feels like an ambush, I will scout ahead." Kakashi disappeared.

They had only gotten a half mile further before a rumble was heard, Hinata shouted a warning, grabbed Yūki and threw herself forward towards Sasuke. Naruto had been rearguard and didn't have time to jump to safety before a large avalanche buried him.

An avalanche had closed off the other side of the ravine as well. They were boxed in. Three shinobi landed around them, one in front of Sasuke and two behind the girls.

Hinata activated her Byakugan. "The snow it's filled with chakra, I cannot see Naruto-kun." Her voice broke. She turned towards the two shinobi; they weren't wearing any Hitai-ate. She couldn't find him anywhere. Killing-intend pulsated off her, Yūki took the full brunt of it standing right next to her even though it wasn't aimed at her, she dropped to her knees dizzy and nauseous.

"YOU KILLED HIM, THE ONLY ONE LEFT I TRULY CARED ABOUT!" With a cry of anger and pain, she disappeared from Yūki's side, appearing in front of the shinobi to the left. She had come out of the Shunshin ducking low swinging her right arm towards the enemy, leaning further right to get around the arm he had brought up to guard the blow, she hit the lowest rib on the left side of his ribcage. In her anger, she pumped as much chakra into the Jūken strike as she could. It hadn't hit a tenketsu, but that didn't matter, the chakra forced its way through the lung popping all blood vessels it coursed through, traveling through the lung completely and straight into his heart. A fine mist of blood sprayed out of his mouth as he exhaled for the last time before slumping to the ground dead, covering the left side of Hinata's face in blood.

The blood hitting her face, tempered the white-hot fury that had caused her to jump into action, becoming cold fury with a sharp edge. She turned towards the other shinobi, he wouldn't get off as easy. Jumping towards him she hit him with a Jūken strike in the middle of his right ribcage, again pumping a lot of chakra into the strike, it flooded the lung with blood. Lifting her hand to strike the left lung, then watch as the man that had taken Naruto from her drowns in his own blood. Just as she was about to strike, a white blur landed in front of her, grabbing her wrist guiding the strike past the man that had fallen to the ground and was scrambling away in fear.

Leaning into her close to her ear, the person covered in snow whispered "It's okay, I'm alive, it's okay, please stop Hinata-chan. Please."

She went limp and collapsed into his arms.

Naruto was looking at the people in front of him as Hinata slumped against him. A few feet away from Sasuke, who was puking into the snow, lay a shinobi with smoke coiling off his body. Yūki was likewise in the snow emptying out the content of her stomach.

Kakashi arrived a few seconds later. "Shit... Naruto what happened here?" Naruto looked at the Jōnin. "I-I don't know, I jumped out of the way of the snow but got hit by the edge of the avalanche, it took me a moment to jump over it to be back to the rest of the group." Kakashi lifted his Hitai-ate, looking at his student with both eyes. "Naruto listen to me. This is very important. We cannot stay here; I have detected several groups of people moving towards this position. We need to get out of here, but we also need information. Can you take all three, run up the side of the ravine then head northwest?" Naruto nodded. "I will catch up with you once I have gotten something out of the guy behind you. GO NOW"

Naruto created 22 clones; he sent 10 up the side of the ravine instantly to scout ahead. He was still holding Hinata up, he scooped her up into his arms, a clone went over and did the same with Yūki, a third clone picked up Sasuke throwing him over his shoulders in a firefighter's carry.

Jumping clean out of the ravine with a massive chakra boost that left three big holes in the snow where they had been standing. Ten clones were left behind with Kakashi for a distraction and in case they needed further instructions before Kakashi left the ravine.

Naruto and his clones had been traveling at full tilt through the snow for a good thirty minutes before Kakashi finally caught up to him. Sasuke had wanted to be let down after five minutes, but Naruto had refused, Sasuke couldn't keep up with the chakra boosted speed they were traveling at.  
Kakashi pulled up beside Naruto, looking like he was just out for a jog. "This is seriously impressive for a genin Naruto, is this the fastest you can move?" Naruto nodded. "If I boost any more I cannot control the chakra spread and whatever I set down on, to continue moving, explodes. We need to slow down soon; my clones will start to run low in less than 5 minutes." Kakashi nodded, he had lowered his Hitai-ate again.

They had outpaced and shaken off their pursuers with a distraction set by the other clones and a whole mess of explosive tags.

They needed to find shelter somewhere and regroup. Hinata looked pale; he had seen her handiwork on the two shinobi. She must have used a large amount of her chakra on those strikes. There had been so much forced through their systems that even if he hadn't finished the shinobi after the interrogation, he would have been dead in hours from chakra poisoning. He had sealed the head to send to Konoha, with a summon once they had the time, there was something that didn't make sense about this. He needed a mind rip to figure out who was behind this.

Looking at the girl covered in blood in Naruto's arms. "Hinata, think you're capable of using locating a cave nearby we can take place in?" Nodding slightly she activated her bloodlimit.

They had slowed down some; it wouldn't be long before Naruto's clones would need to be replaced. Yūki had fallen unconscious before they left the ravine and would need to be put somewhere warm until she awoke.

Hinata finally located a cave after twenty minutes and fell asleep in Naruto's arms from Chakra exhaustion. They went into the cave; Kakashi covered the entrance with a genjutsu, the jutsu cast through his sharingan it would need one of the San Daidōjutsu to known it was there.

They were in safety for now. His young charges were exhausted. Kakashi had started a small fire for warmth, with the genjutsu covering the entrance they could afford having a fire going without being discovered.  
Naruto had burned a huge amount of chakra to move at the speed he had for so long, causing it to exhaust even the perpetual motion machine that was Naruto.  
Sasuke had killed for the first time and seemed a little beside himself, Kakashi was worried that it wasn't the normal reaction to taking a life, he would have to talk to the boy later.  
Hinata was sleeping in Naruto's arms; Naruto had managed to sit them down and was now looking into the fire with a weary look on his face.

A few hours passed, Naruto and Sasuke had fallen asleep while Yūki had finally awoken, still shaken from what had happened she sat down beside Kakashi. The Hyūga had gone berserk; she could hardly believe it, the reaction to the apparent death of the blonde boy. She had seen the look of fear on the second shinobi after he had been hit and was scrambling back away from her while coughing blood and trying to breathe, calling for mercy and backing away as she had moved closer for the last attack, begging the monster to leave him alone. There had been a spike of that nasty feeling, which had been flooding her and she had lost conscious right after.

"What happened out there, why did the child react like that? So much anger. I don't understand." Kakashi looked at the distressed woman. "Child huh, it's been a long time since those three were children." Kakashi let out a sigh. "It is a product of the shinobi world we live in; sometimes children don't get to stay children. The three of them have all had circumstances that didn't allow for a childhood." Yūki didn't quite follow and just looked at the man sitting next to her.  
"The life of a shinobi is harsh; we live to make the world a better place, in the line of duty we are often forced to take a life. Killing someone tears at the soul, most shinobi develop quirks and become apathetic. Anyone working missions will eventually become what civilians consider odd. Some shinobi take a liking to killing and will eventually start killing indiscriminately before they are stopped. The first kill and how it is handled is significant, if it is not dealt with properly a person could snap. Uchiha and Hyūga both killed someone for the first time today. Thankfully Naruto stopped Hinata before she killed the man begging for his life, if he hadn't it is possible that it would haunt her for the rest of her days. Taking a life out of necessity and one because you want to, are two entirely different things." Kakashi stopped to look at the fire for a few seconds, letting the words hang.

"As shinobi we are sometimes forced to take lives of defenseless people, but we have our command structure to dissipate the personal cost such a task usually carries. That reminds me." Kakashi bit his thumb and did a quick series of seals. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu" A small pug appeared on the floor. "Pakkun, take this to the Intelligence Division." Kakashi placed a scroll on the back of the dog. The dog just nodding disappeared in a puff of smoke.  
"What was that scroll?" Yūki had been eying the small dog that had just appeared."That was the heads of the three shinobi that ambushed us."  
Yūki narrowed her eyes. "Three? I thought you said that Naruto had left the last one alive." Kakashi shrugged, and in a flat voice responded. "I killed the third once I had tortured whatever information I could out of him." That ended the conversation and Yūki moved away to lie down close to the fire.

* * *

**Kakashi, few hours later**

Kakashi had a nagging feeling that something wasn't as it seemed. This was a C-rank mission; the presence of shinobi would automatically make it at least B-rank. Those three had been fresh genin, they might have posed a threat to a normal team right out of the Academy.

Kakashi just shook his head at the thought. His team were every bit as broken as he was, how had he ended up with a team of three people each broken in their own way. Uchiha driven by hatred and desire for vengeance against his brother, Naruto growing up without parents and ousted by the whole town. Hinata's reaction had shown she was also broken, the sheer anger it must have taken to force that much chakra into another person. The Hyūga clan knew all the ways pure chakra interacted with a body, what she had done had been entirely on purpose.

What he had learned from the shinobi had bothered him, they didn't come from a village, it was a clan that roamed the mountains. The three that had attacked them, had been sent to spy on them while they were to walk into an ambush. When he had left the group to scout for an ambush, they had seen their chance to attack on their own. The only thing they knew was the girl was their target. He hadn't gleaned any information about who they were working.

Kakashi scowled, it didn't make sense, the people that had held her captive had been ordinary bandits. Bandits were a common occurrence on C-rank missions, shinobi were not. The three that had attacked them were fairly weak. Kakashi had sensed much larger chakra signatures further ahead in the ravine; it was what had caused him to head back towards the others in the first place.

They had gone too far into the country now, they needed to press on towards their goal, going the long way around. Heading back towards the Land of Fire would be suicide since the enemy was now between them and the border.

Kakashi decided to wake Sasuke and talk with him before the others got up. Shaking the sleeping boy, he was greeted by a pair of red eyes. 'Shit' How had he not noticed that.

"Sasuke, what do you see?" Sasuke looked confused then widened his eyes. "You mean?"  
Kakashi nodded. "The Sharingan." Sasuke spend a bit looking around the cave. "Your Sharingan is still in its first stage, it will develop naturally with use."

Sasuke nodded. "I know, I have been studying my clan's library on the abilities and stages of it."

Kakashi smiled under his mask. "First you should turn it off, it will take a while to get used to the drain, no sense in wearing yourself out, and then I think you should tell me about the fight you were in."

Sasuke turned off his Sharingan. "The shinobi jumped down right in front of me, his tanto was already swinging towards me in an attempt to disembowel me. I barely managed to get out of the way in time, he was fast, but not quite as fast as the guys I have been training against the last month." He gestured at his jacket the cloth covering the zipper had been torn from the near miss.

"As I jumped back I fired off a Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu, he brough up his tanto and did a seal with his other hand it formed a water shield around it completely blocking the jutsu. I followed up with a Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu, he kept the shield up, it blocked the 6 balls of fire, but not the kunai inside them, they all hit him. The shield faltered and I hit him with a pointblank Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu." Sasuke hesitated a little, then continued.  
"I-I have been preparing myself for the eventuality of taking a life, its part of being a shinobi. I wasn't prepared for exactly what it meant to kill someone as a member of a clan that specializes in fire. He crumbled to the ground screaming, I could see all him twitch as the fire licked over him, his muscles contract as the pain overwhelm his senses and shut him down."

Kakashi was looking at his young student, closed his eye for a few seconds and looked at him again. "Your Sharingan was activated as you hit him; it told you of every single movement in his body. It's not a very pleasant way to awaken." Sasuke was a little white at the prospect of all kills being that detailed because of his bloodlimit.

"What finally got to me after watching that was the smell of burnt meat and the low sizzle after he had stopped screaming. Everything started spinning, and suddenly Naruto was carrying me away."

Kakashi put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "You should get some rest today; we're staying here for the next 32 hours lowering the chances of getting found by whoever is pursuing us. Before you rest, reactivate your eyes and go have a look at Naruto."

Sasuke got up and walked over to the sleeping couple. The girl had a gentle stream of chakra flowing through her; it was hard to make out the details because of whom she was slumped against. Naruto was a raging ocean of power; it was so intense that he practically radiated it, the color bleeding outside of the chakra network and in the coils so intense that the colors bled outside of his body even.

'Shit. THAT is what I have been sparring against?' Sasuke looked shaken, causing Kakashi to smile under his mask. The shock was written all over Sasuke's face as he approached his sensei. "W-what is he? That cannot be normal. He is so bright; it's like staring at the sun." Sasuke studied his teacher with his eyes still active. "He has multiple times the amount of chakra of you. I don't see how that is possible. It's no wonder he can use all those clones." Kakashi raised an eyebrow. Not normal, the kid was sharp. "I cannot tell you that, you are not to ask him either, he will tell you himself in time. I will tell you this, work with them; together the three of you have the potential to become the strongest shinobi team Konohagakure has ever seen."

A few minutes later Sasuke was lying on his back eyes closed thinking. 'He is right; between two of the San Daidōjutsu and the dobe's massive reserve we would be unstoppable.' Letting out a sigh he mentally kicked himself again for not knowing when it had been Naruto's birthday, it would have been a great way to earn points with him.

A short while later Hinata awoke with a start, not completely sure where she was. She looked up and saw the whiskered face of Naruto looking at her. Naruto had been jolted awake by the sudden movement.

Everything that had happened in the ravine flooded Hinata, she turned her head into the boys jacket and started crying. Naruto gave her a slight squeeze. "It's okay Hinata-chan, I know it isn't easy, but I'm always here for you. I won't ever die, promised I'd stand by you forever, remember?" Hinata gave a small nod, after a while she stopped shaking. "T-Thank you for stopping me."

Hinata then laid the side of her head to his chest. The steady sound of his heart beating had soon lulled her back to sleep. Naruto looked at the lithe girl lying against him, gave a soft smile. She had been there for him after Mizuki, he was damn well was going to be there for her for this. He then leaned his head back against the camping gear he had stacked to sit against and drifted off as well.

* * *

**A/N:**

This chapter's content bloated massively, it only contains the first three scenes out of the six planned, I'm skipping Academy antics for the next while to move the story line along since the story arc will be quite a few more chapters than projected.

To make up for it, there will be another chapter tomorrow.

**1Waylander: **Thanks for pointing out the error in the last chapter; fixed it right away :)

**Alucard45**: Blargh! Movies, if any of them wasn't filler I might consider watching them, but as it stands filler has no interest.

**Kingswriter:** Not quite sure who that is, but the wiki claims Shion is from one of the movies, in that case it's not like that at all.

San Daidōjutsu - Three Great Eye Techniques: Rinnegan, Sharingan and Byakugan (Rinnegan is considdered a myth, but counted amongst the 3 great techniques, and possibly where the Sharingan and Byakugan originated from)

A few things about the Sharingan and the Byakugan with their ability to see chakra.  
The Sharingan can see the flow, and through that the potential of it (Naruto is so overflowing that it shows as color bleed)  
The Byakugan can see the absolute chakra, which is why they can see through genjutsu, they can see what the jutsu is made of instead of the ability itself. When Hinata looks at Naruto, it is not like looking at the sun, she can see all the chakra he contains. She doesn't see a bleed off it, she can see all of it as it runs through the network into the coils and out through the tenketsu. Sasuke can see that Naruto has many times the chakra of Kakashi, while Hinata would be able to tell you that he has exactly 73.38 times the chakra of Kakashi at the current time.


	8. Chapter 8: Hunted

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto or any associated characters.

* * *

**A/N**:

Welcome to chapter eight of Sister Lost.

Reformatted Chapter 7 based on feedback from **Solvdrage **for readability, there has been no changes to content. Going to try something new with this chapter in relation to conversation, taking a page out of the Fanfic, that going me into the whole fanfiction thing when I started reading them a month ago. **Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality**

Once more that same ol' song: I do not have any beta readers so spelling, characterization and such are all on me, feel free to point out any and all glaring errors. Especially since English isn't my first language. I will try to avoid all the regular pitfalls, but it will be unavoidable that things slip through; feedback will allow me to fix mistakes and prevent future ones. So tear my grammar and spelling a new one if you find errors.

Glad people have received chapter seven so well, was super afraid of the reaction to Hinata's berserk button. Fun fact the scene was originally meant as the opening to Wave, where she demolished the Demon Brothers. With Sasuke re-awakening his Sharingan due to feeling killing intend for the first time since the massacre, making it all come flooding back.

This is another "short" chapter. Only clocking in at 4,3k words, kinda like the previous one. I would feel like a slacker, but don't have the energy after writing and publishing 3 chapters in 3 days :D

* * *

**Chapter 8: Hunted**

**Team Kakashi and Yūki, morning hours, cave hidden by genjutsu**

Hinata woke completely immobilized. Her inner Hyūga was screaming at her. Last night she had needed to be held by him, she had needed the comfort, she had been exhausted and he had protected her, as he had promised he would always do. Apparently, her sleeping self had decided it wanted more the night she had shifted around, she had twisted her upper body against Naruto. To make matters worse, the hand Naruto had kept on her shoulder had fallen down as she had twisted and he was now holding her to him at her waist. The conservative and proper voice was ranting about how this was entirely inappropriate behavior for a young lady.

Being this close wasn't really that much of a problem, they had often rested sitting back to back, or lain in the grass in each direction, faces inches from each other. What was a problem was that she had activated her Byakugan. The others were awake and watching the two of them with smiles on their faces. She weren't going to live this one down, and if Ino ever got a wind of this she would hound her about it forever.

Sasuke was on the verge of laughing. He had been awake for a while and had been playing with his Sharingan. He had seen the chakra rush to the girl's eyes when she activated her bloodlimit. He could see the small muscle movements that told him, she was a little fidgety about being caught snuggling with her boyfriend.

In that moment Naruto's eyes sprang open, he immediately put his arms over his head stretching, with a smile on his face while saying good morning. Hinata had seen her chance and had corrected her position keeping the blonde in the dark.

"Man I haven't slept this well in a while." The blonde entirely unaware of the double-entendre, that had Yūki burst out in laughter. Sasuke almost joined her in it but didn't get the chance as the blonde was looking at him. "Teme have you been crying? Your eyes are all red."

Sasuke's smile turned into a scowl. "Moron, it's my Sharingan."

Hinata sprang up and went out to the cave entrance, coming back with a bucket of snow for melting so she could wash the coagulated blood out of her hair. Naruto had wiped off the blood on her face after they had arrived at the cave.

With the ambush the mission had changed, this was going to take much longer than the originally planned six weeks. They were going to have to start hunting for extra food supplies, and water was now a precious resource.

Kakashi knew of a jutsu that could purify water, it was meant as an anti poison measure, it however used an incredible amount of chakra. Kakashi couldn't produce even half the amount they needed for a single day without dying from chakra exhaustion. Short of teaching Naruto to do it, they would have to conserve what they had. They had enough sealed away for another five weeks, since you should always bring extra.

Kakashi had briefly considered trying to teach Naruto the jutsu, there was a chance the boy had water as his element or at least as a secondary element. He decided not to, if Naruto did manage to learn it, being an A-rank jutsu with Narutos current control, he would have to pour out so much chakra that it would bleed into the air, lighting them up for any sensor with 50 miles to find.

This was the reality now; if they encountered more of their pursuers in the future, they would have to loot the bodies.

While Hinata had gone off behind a tent they had converted into a privacy area to wash up, Naruto and Sasuke were doing a light spar away from the fire. It was important that Sasuke got used to his Sharingan if he were to survive it.

Naruto sprang up close to Sasuke, snapping out an attack toward to left shoulder. Sasuke turn to twist the shoulder away from the strike, counter attacking with his right hand going for a kidney punch. Naruto then decided that he should stop holding back; he grabbed Sasuke's wrist then pulling him towards him, following up with a palm strike to the solar plexus. Sasuke crumbled to the ground, Naruto had held back on the punch.

"Shit, that hurt." Sasuke looked up on his teammate, grinning even in defeat. "I can actually follow your attacks now, and even avoid some. You're still too fast for me to hit with taijutsu, trying leaves me completely open."

Naruto held out a hand to help him up. "Man that is so cool, wanna see if you can copy the chakra boost?"

Sasuke lit up at that, if he could use a boost to move around, even just a few times in a fight he would have an easier time to get openings for ninjutsu, like jumping away to fire off a fire jutsu in the air. His hopes were quickly dashed as Naruto did a short jump at full speed. He had been watching closely, the amount of chakra that had been used for that had hurt his eyes. The way the blonde stopped moving was nothing short of impressive, the chakra was like he instantly grew the roots of a great oak spreading into the cave floor. He didn't give up hope completely, Hinata's version would probably work for him, he didn't have that level of control, but her Byakugan had caused her to figure out how to imitate it with a fraction of the chakra, copying that even if he had to use more should be possible.

Naruto had shown the Kage Bunshin next, Sasuke was crying on the inside when he saw how much chakra the dobe poured into that.

Hinata had returned, sitting down next to Yūki who was relaxing near the fire. Yesterday had been rough on the civilian, she had needed to just sit and relax. Since they weren't going anywhere today she was going to do just that.

Hinata was watching the two boys horse around, happy that Sasuke had snapped out of the brooding he had been doing all morning. Naruto seemed to rub off on their teammate a little; perhaps he would become an actual friend in time. She didn't have any friends beside Naruto and Shikamaru, the rest of the old class were more acquaintances than friends. Sure Chōji and Kiba were usually there when they had hung out with Shikamaru. Chōji never said anything to her and Kiba was always looking at her which was a little creepy.

Sasuke was stunned at how open Naruto was about his abilities. He was currently showing him the katas that made the basis of his taijutsu, so he could copy them. The style was ruthlessly efficient, much of it utilizing blocks to cause openings on the opponent. Like he had demonstrated earlier when he had used his attack to get him off balance for a critical hit. That had to be the result of sparring with the girl for so long, her defense was so good and fast, that the easiest way to attack her, was to use her own attacks against her.

While he could copy it, he didn't have the strength or speed to actually use it. Knowing how Naruto fought would help immensely on team efforts however, allowing him to create openings for Naruto and to utilize openings Naruto would make on his target.

Hours passed as the day went by, as it was tradition Hinata and Naruto found themselves doing a light spar with eachother. Sasuke was watching the two; he quickly had to turn off his Sharingan, slightly blushing, while adding another bullet-point to his list for revival of the Uchiha clan. Right under '-hotter than a Hyūga' '-Taijutsu master', because '_Damn_'

Kakashi had seen that and sat down next to Sasuke grinning. "Yeah, there is that. Don't count Bukijutsu masters out either."Sasuke just turned his head to his teacher with wide eyes, slightly creeped out. "Most of those have the grace **and** power."

Kakashi was considered by many the strongest Jōnin in Konohagakure, and in the shinobi world, power was sexy. He had been around in an attempt to find someone, but had entirely given up a couple of years ago. There were only so many times one could stand being called emotionally stunted.

Sasuke quickly got up and walked about from his sensei, he wasn't going to listen what else the pervert had to say about that subject.

* * *

**Two days later, in the middle of a raging blizzard**

The first day after they had left the cave had been uneventful. When it had been time to stop for the day, Sasuke had burned a large hole in the snow, where Kakashi had raised a few slabs of stones forming a bivouac to keep them in shelter for the harsh wind, only making enough room under the shelter for them to raise their tents. The winds would cover the shelter with snow in a matter of minutes hiding their camp.

Hinata had spotted rabbits and they had caught and sealed them for later. They couldn't afford to start a fire the first night, wanting to get a few days travel between them and the ravine, and preferably finding a cave to hide in where the light wouldn't give them away.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Hinata was yelling over the loud blizzard, they were traveling through. Kakashi appeared at her side. "Sensei, we are being followed, it looks like large wolves, around a dozen of them, the blizzard is making it hard to make out any other details"

Nodding Kakashi disappeared and appeared between Sasuke and Naruto. Naruto was carrying Yūki since the blizzard was too fierce to move forward in without chakra to stand fast. "We need to pick up the pace, how does it look, Sasuke, can you travel faster than this?"

The blackhaired boy shook his head. He was already straining in keeping his footing while moving at speed through headwinds.

'Damn it, this could be a problem.' Kakashi was thinking furiously. The wolves were obviously hunting them; five humans would make a good meal for a pack. Hinata and Sasuke were already working hard to keep moving in the harsh weather. They needed to lose those wolves, he wasn't sure if they could take on a whole pack head on in this weather, they had the advantage. Only Hinata would be able to actually keep track of them and wolves often attacked using guerilla tactics. If they stopped, they would be surrounded and depending on the race of wolves that could pose a serious problem, moving closer to Naruto. "Yūki, how dangerous are the larger races of wolves that inhabit this region?"

Yūki shot Kakashi a quick look of fear. "Large wolves? How large are we talking, there is a species of dire wolves that is known to attack even large groups of humans."Kakashi disappeared from her side hearing that.

Reappearing a few second later. "We might have a serious problem; Hinata is saying that the leader is large enough for the back to be around her shoulder height."

Yūki let out a small yelp of fear. Confirming what Kakashi had been expecting.

This was bad, Kakashi was weighing their options, one genin couldn't travel any faster, another would run low if doing so for more than 20 minutes. Naruto was the only one who could travel any faster in these conditions without wearing himself out, but carrying the others would also put him on a time constraint of 30 minutes before he was going to be having trouble with stopping to replace clones.

He popped back next to Hinata. "Are the wolves keeping up with us?"

Hinata nodded. "They seem to be keeping pace with us."

'Shit. They outpace us, if they are able to stay at the same distance; they are trying to wear us out.' Kakashi only had two options left then, either try to use clones to distract them and make a run for it, or break off from his students and delay the wolves himself.

Kakashi sighed. "Hinata, break formation and move up ahead to the others."

Hinata increased her pace caught up with the others shortly after.

Kakashi appeared right in front of them. "Listen to me, this is very important, you have to stick together and find a cave somewhere to take shelter in." Kakashi paused for a moment. "Head towards the mountainside to our right and follow that until you find a cave." Kakashi dropped to the side and fell in besides Sasuke. "Sasuke use this to hide the entrance to the cave, I will be able to recognize it." Kakashi lifted his Hitai-ate and looked directly at Sasuke.

Sasuke was stunned his sensei had a Sharingan! How did he have that, he must have stolen it. No, that didn't make sense, besides his brother there was no Uchiha alive. That means he had it before the slaughter, if he did then his clan must have known about it. 'Shit, that's where the Kopī Ninja no Kakashi name comes from. So, that is why I ended up on this team, Kakashi is the only logical choice for a teacher.'

Kakashi ran through a string of hand seals. Casting the genjutsu he had used to camouflage the entrance they had used on the previous cave, quickly dispelling it again once he had confirmed that Sasuke had seen it. It was a genjutsu unique to the Sharingan, even the early stages Sasuke should be able to pick it up after seeing it just once.

"Fall into formation with Hinata taking point, she will find a cave for you to take shelter in. I will fall back and take on the wolves. Once I had defeated them or led them away, I will return to here and find the genjutsu." Kakashi motioned them to keep moving forward and then disappeared.

An explosion was heard followed by a large flash that lighted up the place like a lightning strike, ending with a loud howl.

The three genin had fallen into formation with Naruto carrying Yūki in the middle. They keep their pace for over an hour, before Hinata spotted a shallow cave on the mountainside.

Hinata and Sasuke had been completely exhausted by the time they had entered the cave. Sasuke had used the last chakra he safely could on casting the genjutsu on the cave mouth. It was a very small cave; they couldn't start a fire because of the wind that slammed into the cave.

Naruto had pitched the largest tent they had brought; there was only room for one tent in the cave. They all sat huddled together inside under a single large thermal blanket to share body heat. The wind-chill was high enough that it penetrated even the well-isolated tent walls.

It had now been nine hours, since they had split up from their sensei. The blizzard had died down an hour ago. Sasuke had been exhausted; he had been out like a light after they had finally packed into the small tent. Now they were sitting restless waiting for their teacher to return. Naruto was having trouble staying still, but Sasuke had managed to convince them all that they should stay put. Hinata had agreed and that had pacified the hyperactive blonde.

* * *

**Kakashi, a little under nine hours earlier**

Kakashi was exhausted, he had barely managed to raise a Bivouac and crawl under it with a sleeping bag using a thermal blanket to keep melted snow out. Unable to follow his students, he had exhausted himself completely; it would be days before he would be able to move again. Only the adrenalin had kept him going to set up the shelter.

There had been shinobi with the wolves. Kakashi had seen their signatures before he came up on the wolves, two Jōnin by the size of their chakra. Instead of a head on assault, he had slipped into the snow and placed explosive tags then moving forward 50 yards. After the wolves had passed over him, he detonated the tags as he jumped out of the snow assassinating the shinobi the furthest back with a Raikiri.

The fight with the remaining shinobi and the wolves had been hard; Kakashi had to rely on his Sharingan to dodge the wolves while fighting the remaining shinobi. Relying on the Sharingan took a heavy toll on him, not having the bloodline; it required more chakra to use the abilities of the Sharingan.

He had caught half of the wolves in a Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu, utilizing Kage Bunshin to occupy the remaining wolves. Kakashi managed to trap the remaining shinobi in a genjutsu finally allowing him to decapitate him and then finishing off the remaining wolves.

'I'm sorry students; you will have to wait for me. Hopefully you will be safe, now that I have taken care of the nine wolves that were hounding us.' Kakashi let out a loud curse. 'Nine' was his last though before falling unconscious.

* * *

**The genin + Yūki, present**

A loud howl was heard from outside the cave, had the wolves defeated their sensei? Sasuke spoke up. "Hinata."

Nodding Hinata activated her Byakugan."I count twenty shinobi standing in a semi circle around three wolves. They have tracked us here."

Sasuke was reeling, the wolves had been used to track them, and the blizzard had obscured all the other pursuers. They needed to get away from the cave, their pursuers knew they were there; it was only a matter of time before they found the location of the cave and dispelled the genjutsu if they were able to track them by scent.

Standing up throwing off the blanket, he looked at the other three. "We only have one chance to get away; we need to break through their lines by surprising them. If we linger we will be completely boxed in. Naruto make some clones to pack up our gear, we cannot afford to lose resources at this point. Meanwhile I will go through what we have to do."

Five minutes later, a voice boomed out of the mountainside. "Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" Narutos started pouring out from nowhere. Forming a wedge ten rows deep and nine wide, the clones charged the enemy lines, half way down the mountainside, the wedge split into three, reforming into separate wedges, each six clones wide five deep.

As the wedges reached the ground, they boosted off towards the enemy. The three waves of clones hit the enemy line like rockets, the first row popping from the impact damage. The second row had each been holding explosive tags, which set off as they reached the line. Staggered back by the kinetic assault, the clones caught the shinobi off guard. The explosion that followed blew up about half the shinobi, who hadn't been fast enough to pull back after the first wave. The explosions had punched three holes in the line. The remaining three rows of each wedge punched through the holes and headed out in separate directions, 45 degrees between them, chakra boosting off as fast as possible.

Fifty clones poured out from the mountainside, boosting right off the side into all possible directions. Another wave of fifty clones poured out, split up and started running along the mountainside in both directions.

The wave that had gone to the right from the cave in the wedge wave had grown three clones, then three split off with the wedge of 18 clones continuing their current heading.

The three Narutos traveled for ten minutes, the middle Naruto started staggering. "Shit" The Naruto to the left dropped its henge, revealing Sasuke. He grabbed the arm of the middle Naruto steadying him.

The Naruto on the right dropped its henge, revealing Hinata with Yūki on her back. She was the only one with enough control to do a combination henge.

Naruto was feeling an insane amount of backlash, the ten surviving shinobi had started chasing down clones and was killing them. The fourth row of clones had each been carrying explosive tags as well and between the backlashes, he managed to confirm that the clones had taken another two with them.

Sasuke hefted Naruto in a firefighter's carry, Naruto had exhausted most his chakra on the clones and he had pulled them both along with him with his boost, enabling them to follow the same speed with their weaker boosts.

Sasuke and Hinata set off again having spent a minute regaining their breath.

An hour later they were starting to reach their limits as well, the henge plus the limited boosts they had used was taking their toll. Naruto had confirmed that there was still two wedges out running and twenty some clones running around alone.

They slowed down and let both Naruto and Yūki down. Moving as fast as Yūki were able, they made their way further into the country. Following another mountain range they had come across, they found a cave network. Sasuke closed off a branch of the network and they made their way in as far as they could before finally making camp.

As they were pitching the last of the tents, Naruto collapsed to the floor. "They took out the two wedges at once; they know we weren't amongst them." He then passed out from exhaustion.

* * *

**Two hours later**

Sasuke, Hinata and Yūki were sitting around the small fire they had built. They had put Naruto into his tent and let him recover.

"The dobe really came through for us." Sasuke looked at the two others. "Making those two high-powered clones to stay behind, before making the Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, having them then make another 49 clones each after we had left was incredible."

Hinata smiled. "It was clever, but your tactic with the wedges was what got us away. How did you come up with that anyways?"

Sasuke shrugged. "I had read about something similar in the war with the Iwa. Using wedges to break into enemy lines and make them rout. I just figured we might be able to do the same to break a simple circle." Sasuke grinned. "Of course the wedges used in the war all consisted of three cells of four. Not a wedge of ninety that suddenly split into three with thirty."

"Hopefully we can stay here for a while before we have to continue on." Hinata was tired, letting out a small sigh. "Let's hope Kakashi finds the scroll so he knows what direction to go."

Sasuke nodded. "When we leave here we should put down another scroll. It was smart of you to put chakra into the scroll so it could power the small genjutsu for a few days. Is that a Hyūga thing?"

Hinata shook her head. "The scroll I wrote on was a blank sealing scroll; it channels chakra naturally, so it was just to project chakra into it. Ordinary scrolls wouldn't be able to hold the chakra." Hinata stood up and walked towards her tent. "We should put out the fire and then get some sleep; it had been a long and stressful day."

Sasuke nodded; grabbing the bucket of snow, they had brought with them in and smothered the flames. "Yūki, we are going to need to move as soon as Naruto has recovered. Are you okay with being carried, we cannot afford moving at walking speed in case they are still on our trail."

Yūki just nodded, and got up heading to her tent.

* * *

**Kakashi, middle of nowhere, two days later**

Kakashi awoke with a start. He had barely been able to move the last two days only managed to drink occasionally. He was incredibly hungry, taking out rations, quickly eating them. He needed to find out what had happened to his team.

Quickly striking his improvised camp, he set off in the direction of the mountain his genin had been instructed to head towards.

He had been traveling for a while before coming across a scene of battle. Explosions and a lot of blood marred the snow. The whole area was practically radiating chakra. Kakashi raised an eyebrow while looking around with his Sharingan. Naruto had been here, he was the only one capable pumping out chakra like that, and the chakra felt like him.

Just before, he put his Hitai-ate back over his eye to avoid getting a headache from looking at all that chakra he spotted the camouflage genjutsu that was coming from cave 20 yards up the side of the mountain.

Going inside he cursed to himself, empty. He went over to a corner that was covered with the genjutsu. Dispelling it, he saw a scroll, opening it immediately.

The scroll read "We have been surrounded in this cave by twenty shinobi, Sasuke has a plan, if it succeeds we will head." The rest was a numeric cipher, pulling out his codebook he quickly determined the direction his students might have gone. 'You better be okay, all of you.'

Kakashi jumped out of the cave and set off as fast as he could, they had a two day head start on him.

* * *

**A/N**:

That was it for this short chapter. This and Chapter 7 was originally meant as one, but as I wrote chapter 7 is felt self contained when I had reached the end, so I decided to split it off. I can't include more scenes into this chapter since they all belong together otherwise I would have to end this on a cliffhanger, so I'd rather end it here as intended. I might be evil, but I'm not a complete bastard. ;)

Kakashi looked at his students. "Okay kids, we're going to take a page out of the Ultima Online playbook and gank. That is: PK some noobs and loot the corpses."

**1Waylander: **Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated, changed the passages mentioned. (No content changed just wording, so no need to re-read folks) On chapter 6 review. You don't say sorry for not reviewing. I'm very grateful for the suggestions, but you don't have to feel obligated in any ways to leave a review for every single chapter.

**Lord Xantos A. Fowl**: 73.38 is indeed the actual number. I've been leaving hints at the differences in many of the chapters so far. Let us recap:

Bunshin no jutsu that explodes in HUGE plumes of smoke, enough dissipating chakra to fill the entire room.

Tree climbing that not just cracks the bark, but explodes the damn tree.

The fact that it took Naruto much longer to master tree walking without the explosions. (Training it together with Hinata before graduation and then training with team Kakashi. Where he after a week still blew up trees half the time.)

The main reason for this is the difference between Naruto's physical condition in the cannon when he graduates and his condition in this at graduation.  
In the cannon Naruto is a scrawny, malnourished boy that had never received proper training instructions during the Academy.  
In this Naruto in incredibly fit. He had been training together with Hinata to the point of exhaustion (The fox wouldn't let muscle tissue deteriorate like it does on a normal person with overtraining) every day for the last 3 years. Physical training together with experience from actually fighting all out every day has made him hit about 10 times the available chakra.

As a result, his control is much, much worse. It will crop up a lot. However, his chakra will not see the same increase as it does in the cannon, short of going into Kyūbi Chakura Mōdo (Oh wow is that ever a terrible name) which might not even happen in this story.


	9. Chapter 9: Exhausted

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto or any associated characters.

* * *

**A/N**:

Welcome to chapter nine of Sister Lost.

Once more that same ol' song: I do not have any beta readers so spelling, characterization and such are all on me, feel free to point out any and all glaring errors. Especially since English isn't my first language. I will try to avoid all the regular pitfalls, but it will be unavoidable that things slip through; feedback will allow me to fix mistakes and prevent future ones. So tear my grammar and spelling a new one if you find errors.

This chapter hasn't been proof read quite as much as I'd like, it will get another iteration sometime later this week.

* * *

**Chapter 9: Exhausted**

**Hinata, two days and nine hours later**

"Hinata-chan, Hinata-chan, wake up" Her eyes flickered open, blinking in the morning light. She locked eyes with two blue orbs inches away from her face. She blinked again disoriented for a moment. It seemed like the world was a blur. She looked again, the blur were pine trees as they went past. She looked up at the blonde who was carrying her.

"What, what happened?" She couldn't remember why she was being carried. She studied his face. Naruto looked like he was about to keel over of exhaustion. She had never seen him physically exhausted before.

Naruto looked around then mouthed "Shit" Hinata grabbed hold of the boy to prevent falling as he moved his hands for a moment. Five Kage Bunshin popped into existence behind him and immediately jumped away from their little group.

Hinata looked around, there were two clones running besides them, if there hadn't been something terribly wrong, she probably would have sniggered at Sasuke being carried bridal style like that. The other clone was carrying Yūki.

Naruto looked down at her for a moment before scanning the area. "Can you check behind us Hinata-chan?"

Nodding she activated her eyes. There were nothing there, she focused more chakra into her eyes, extending her vision, she wasn't used to doing this to get extra range and felt a small twinge of pain as her field of vision narrowed to a cone a mile and a half long behind them.

Four clones stood in front of a shinobi cell. One close had transformed into Yūki, while a version of her and Sasuke were flanking the only clone that wasn't in a Henge. The fifth clone were doing something in the trees between them and the clones blocking the shinobi.

Naruto nodded as Hinata described what she had seen. "Good, let's hope we can lose them this time."

Hinata forced her eyes closed for a moment ending the dōjutsu.

The clones had been trying to hinder their pursuers. The four clones were quickly dispelled, their pursuers were skilled. They hadn't been expecting the traps however. A deadfall had caught one of them in the chest and he had crumbled to the ground. Distracted by the shout of pain from their teammate the other two had failed to notice the low swinging branch. It shattered the tibia of the shinobi on the side the branch came from, the other shinobi managed to jump, but the branch grazed his foot sending him tumbling forward into the snow.

The remaining clone had rocketed out of the tree nearby landing on the prone shinobi. Hinata felt a little queasy from seeing the clone reinforcing itself with a large amount of chakra just as it struck sending all the kinetic energy into the enemy, collapsing the ribcage and snapping the spine.

Drawing a kunai the clone had finished off the two other shinobi and dispelled itself. Naruto faltered a step; Hinata could see his face harden as the memories of killing the three men flooding him.

Naruto, face grim, looked down at her. "I need to rest for a moment; it should be safe for now." They stopped; Naruto and his clones let them down. "Sasuke-teme, how is your head doing?"

Sasuke looked around after being set down. "Uh, hurts, don't think I have a concussion, but got knocked for quite a loop. Where are we and why do you look like you have been to hell and back?" Sasuke was looking at Naruto.

Hinata finally got a chance to look at him. He looked ragged. One sleeve was a little singed; there was several cuts in the jacket exposing the microfibers. He was dirty and had a little cut on the back on his hand that had almost closed itself.

Catching his breath for a moment, Naruto looked at the three. "I have been running with you for a little over a day, ever since they caught up with us."

Hinata's eyes went wide. Had she been out that long? Memories of the attack came flooding back to her. They had been fighting hard, how was Naruto even still going? He must have been as exhausted as they were. "Naruto-kun was those three the only ones that has been following us?"

Sasuke had demanded to know what she was talking about and after having related what she had just seen, they had managed to get Naruto to tell them about what had happened while they were out.

"That was the fourth cell." Naruto looked weary, a soft look in his eyes told them that he would rather not talk about it, but continued on anyways. "I don't know how they keep finding us; they must have more wolves, but has stopped sending them against us." The others nodded; they had killed three when they had broken through the line to escape a couple of days ago. "The last two didn't fall for the distraction clones, so had to kill them." Averting his eyes from his comrades, Naruto slumped to the ground. "I need to take a break before we can continue"

* * *

**The three genin and Yūki, 26 hours ago, traveling through a ravine**

Sasuke was taking point with Naruto in the middle carrying Yūki; Hinata was bringing up the rear with the occasional Byakugan check. They had dropped into the ravine in hopes of avoiding detection; the area over the ravine was completely open.

They heard a howl behind them. Hinata activated her dōjutsu. "STOP." Three shinobi dropped into the ravine in front of them, as a gigantic wolf and a shinobi came up behind them stopping 10 yards away.

Sasuke jumped back landing next to his teammates. "Hinata, How strong are they?"

Hinata quickly assessed their opponents. "The three have less chakra than me; the man with the wolf has a little more than you."

Sasuke's mind raced through a few scenarios in a moment. "Naruto, use some clones to guard Yūki and attack those three." Sasuke gritted his teeth; this was going to hurt his pride. "Hinata, you need to handle the one behind us, these are all water users, I'm at a heavy disadvantage against them. I will take care of the wolf. GO"

The three genin scattered.

Hinata shunshined towards the lone shinobi, appearing two yards away, then launching towards him with a small boost.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu" A giant fireball roared past Hinata as she appeared out of the shunshin. The wolf had been jumping towards her as she appeared; being unable to halt its movement, it took most of the fireball. Standing singed some fur still on fire, hide burned off to the flesh in multiple places. The wolf turned towards Sasuke as he had expected, seeing him as the larger threat.

As his teammates had initiated combat Naruto had created 14 clones, five standing around Yūki to guard her, with the other nine jump towards the enemy shinobi. As the clones got into melee range with the three shinobi, Naruto launched his self as fast as he could towards the one on the left. Having his clones block the view of him, Naruto pulled back his hand for a chakra-enhanced blow. The combined kinetic energy of the high speed and the chakra enhanced punch shattered the collarbone of the shinobi, who crumbed to the ground in pain. The other two had dispatched his clone and were now turned towards him as he stood over the writing form of their comrade.

Sasuke was cursing loudly at the wolf, why didn't it just die. He was almost completely out of tools; the wolf looked like a pincushion with kunai and shuriken sticking out of it. It had gotten wise after the first fireball and had afterwards dodged most; he was running low on chakra. The small fireballs of the Hōsenka were ignored completely; he had used the jutsu to land quite a few kunai however. The wolf was impossibly fast for something that size.

Hinata was breathing hard; she knew that one way or another the fight was going to end soon. She was glad she had been quick to engage the man, his taijutsu was formidable, and he had strange holster on his side that contained thin weighted knives. She would no doubt have been pelted while those knives if she hadn't been in melee range just as they started. He was almost as fast as she was, and was fighting extremely defensively. It had taken a long time before either had landed a blow. He had managed to get past her guard, as she straightening after an attempted strike to his side. The blow had seemed to slow down as it got near her and she had twisted just in time for it to be only a grazing blow to her lower left ribs. Seeing her opportunity, she had closed two tenketsu on the arm, severely hampering his offence. The amount of chakra she had expended on the fight was starting to take its toll, her defense was becoming harder to maintain and a couple of hits had gone through. Her left shoulder was hurting and her left thigh was going numb with pain after receiving a clean hit. She decided that she couldn't keep this up and next hit must finish the fight. The shinobi punched towards her left side exploiting the gap in her defense her hurting shoulder created. Instead of dodging the blow she twisted forward past it, letting it hit her in her ribs. The pain was immense, as he had hit her where she had been grazed earlier. Ignoring the attack had gotten her completely inside her opponents guard and she did a Jūken strike with all she had left to the shinobi's heart. Killing the man as they both fell to the ground.

Naruto was having trouble getting to the two shinobi that was left standing after he had taken the first out. Both were using a large amount of water to slow him whenever he got close, he had chakra boosted himself into one of the water globes, the speed had made it feel like he had hit concrete. His body was still feeling a little numb from the impact. He had spent too long here, Hinata-chan had said the other shinobi was strong, he needed to be done here and provide backup. Every once in a while a puff of warm air hit him telling him Sasuke was still playing with fire. The two shinobi threw a dozen shuriken at him as he had gone closer to attack. Twisting out of the way of the majority, He couldn't get of our the way of all of them, and used his left hand to block, the shuriken lodged itself on the back of his hand. He pulled it out, while it was usually best to leave bladed implements in the wound to prevent excessive blood loss Naruto knew it wouldn't be an issue for him and leaving it in while fighting could cause nerve damage. He looked at the shuriken, and grinned as an idea struck him. Creating twenty clones with Kage Bunshin he circled the two shinobi and had all clones throw their shuriken at the same time. The two shinobi spread out their water shield in a large cylinder around them, focusing on stopping the attack. Moments later Naruto landed between them and dropped the one in front of him, with a bone crushing blow to the base of the skull. Turning around to face his last opponent, who swung at him, in the most pathetic attempt at taijutsu he had ever seen. Lazily battering the strike aside, he then planted a palm directly on the sternum of remaining shinobi knocking him off his feet. Calling the clones close to hold the shinobi down, he turned to his teammates, as he did Hinata dropped to her knees and onto the hard packed snow.

Sasuke was starting to regret having to fight the wolf it was damn tough. Naruto was the best to handle multiple people, Hinata was strongest against a single opponent and neither had any ranged attacks to speak off, he had been the only choice to fight the dangerous animal. There were only a few patches of fur left on the creature; it was soaked in blood. He was running low on chakra, and was not able to produce any more Gōkakyū no Jutsus, he was down to his last kunai. It was time to finish this before the dobe got done with his targets and would come to help. Not wanting to be upstaged by the blonde teammate, he moved towards the wolf. The wolf shot forward jaws open wide head turned sideways as it went for his throat. Everything seemed to slow down a little as he jumped backwards to avoid the attack. The tomoe in his right eye was spinning as a second formed on the opposite of the pupil from the first. He could suddenly see a ghost of the wolf moving slightly out of synchronization with it, as the real wolf seemed to chase the ghost. He jumped forward towards the creature again, following the ghost waiting for the real wolf to catch up; he sunk the kunai into the throat of the large wolf. His new abilities had made him careless, the wolf swiped out at him after he had hit, knocking him off his feet, sending him sprawling headfirst into a stone on the side of the ravine, knocking him out cold.

Naruto had been moving towards the place the two had been fighting as Sasuke was sent flying. He quickly made a clone to run over to Sasuke, while kneeling down besides Hinata. 'Please be alive, please, please." He examined the girl, she was breathing, the checked her heartbeat, it was nice and steady, she had just slipped unconscious from exertion, quickly checking the shinobi lying in front of her before lifting her gently, and making his way over to the clone next to Sasuke. Relieved to see that both were alive and breathing steadily he had his clone carry Sasuke, while going over to Yūki that had been watching the whole thing with horror painted on her face.

Naruto motioned for her to join him as he went over to the shinobi held down by a few clones; the shinobi had a labored breath as his struggling had cause a rib puncture his lung. "Why are you after her?" Gesturing towards Yūki.

"I'll never tell you anything Konoha scum." The shinobi started gagging and went still shortly after.

Naruto checked the shinobi over for anything that could tell them what the hell was going on. Why were they so adamant on getting to Yūki, since they had been sending so men after them, they had taken out 16 shinobi so far and four wolves. It wasn't just genin either, the one Hinata-chan killed had been a chūnin, Naruto could only imagine how many their sensei had killed to make him so delayed. 'I wish Kakashi-sensei was here, he'd know what to do.'

Naruto heard people shouting further down in the canyon. "Shit" It was time to start running; with just him standing, he wouldn't have a chance. He had the clones that had been guarding Yūki transform into them and wait for the patrol to catch up, before running off in the direction they had been going. Quickly using his last explosive tags to mine the walls of the ravine, leaving a clone behind to trigger them once the pursuers had come close. Naruto and his two clones ran up the side of the ravine.

* * *

**The three genin and Yūki, a day earlier, approximately 8 hours after arriving at the cave**

Sasuke was looking at Naruto, how the hell was the blonde up and about already, that many clones and then those crazy boosts to move around, he shouldn't have been up and about for days.

Naruto was looking hungrily at the fire; Hinata was spit roasting two rabbits over it. Naruto couldn't remember the last time he had been this hungry, and the fact that it was Hinata, who as he knew was an excellent cook, that was making the food, didn't exactly help the matter.

Hinata was writing in a scroll while she occasionally rotated the rabbits, they needed to be off as soon as they were done eating; the others had struck the tents while she had been preparing to cook the rabbits.

Sasuke looked at Yūki who was hugging her knees; she was clearly shaken about yesterday. "Who are you anyways? It seems like we are going to need more information if we are to come through this alive. Why are they after you?"

Yūki opened and closed her mouth a few times, then frowned. "I'm no one; my family has money certainly, but not the kind that would make it profitable to involve shinobi. They have no political influence; I cannot see anything that would make me valuable enough for 20 shinobi to attack us. The bandits that captured me the first time were normal kidnappers, to extort ransoms."

Sasuke looked at Yūki with a scowl on his face. His eyes turned red with the tomoe spinning as he activated his Sharingan. "Are you sure?" He stood up and took a step towards Yūki. "Nothing at all?"

Hinata stepped in front of Sasuke and in a voice that reminded Sasuke of his mother when she had yelled at him. "That is _quite_ enough, sit down Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke quickly sat down; Hinata was kinda scary when she was assertive. 'Wonder if women take a class to learn that tone of voice.' He looked at Hinata as she sat down near the fire again to tend to the food.

Naruto started laughing at Sasuke. "You're looking like a scolded dog teme, thought only Kiba could look like that."

Sasuke sat scowling; Hinata had unsealed some bread and a few carrots. 'Great, get to eat rabbit and its fodder.' He knew Naruto had been right, Hinata had completely caught him off guard and he had felt like a little child after making trouble.

They ate in silence; Naruto had been given the smaller of the two rabbits for himself, while the other three had shared the other.

Sasuke suddenly snapped up his head. "We have company; someone just went through the genjutsu."

Naruto smiled. "Is it Kakashi-sensei?"

Sasuke shook his head. "There are several people. It is them, they have found us."

Hinata activated her Byakugan. "There are five people heading our way, one of them is really strong. At least twice as much chakra as the man in the ravine"

The five shinobi came into view. "Got you at last."

Sasuke looked at the five; they stood spread out in the tunnel. They needed a plan and fast. They couldn't fight a Jōnin. Sasuke looked at the blonde that had moved in front of them as if trying to shield them with his body. Sasuke considered the boy for a monent, and then swept Yūki up in his arms. "Naruto, bunshin now."

"Kage.." Naruto had formed the seal.

"No, bunshin." Sasuke interrupted the technique.

Naruto quickly nodded, understanding. "Bunshin no jutsu!" Two sickly looking clones popped into existence next to him. They wavered for a moment, and then violently exploded into a massive amount of smoke. Naruto had been pouring as much power into the technique as he could.

"Hinata, it's up to you." Sasuke yelled to his teammate, and then felt a hand grab his arm. Hinata led her teammates through gaps between the enemy shinobi and started running towards the exit.

When they got clear of the smoke, Hinata slapped an explosive tab to the side of the tunnel, igniting it as soon as they were a few yards from it. The cave shook as the tag destabilized the tunnel causing a collapse, it probably wouldn't kill the enemy. It would slow them down enough for the three to get a large head start.

* * *

**The three genin and Yūki, present time**

Naruto was sitting on a small boulder he was incredibly tired. His teammates were looking at him in worry. Hinata had never seen him so exhausted, she wondered if they would be able to continue like this.

Sasuke was staring at Naruto is a hint of admiration in his eyes, in the last 48 hours Naruto had been running for almost a day, then fought three genin, followed by him carrying the three of them for 26 hours. How was he still conscious? He was about to offer to carry him, until they could find a place to make camp, when he was interrupted by a howl not too far away. "Shit, they found us. Naruto are you good to go again?"

Naruto held up his hand is a nice-guy pose with a wide smile. His looked weary as he stood up. Sasuke took Yūki onto his back and they were off in the opposite direction of the howl.

Naruto was moving slower and slower, he could feel his movements growing more and more sluggish. The enemy patrol with the wolf was getting closer and closer, they were now within visible range. "I will delay them, you guys go ahead, I will catch up afterwards." Naruto strained to keep the tiredness out of his voice. "You need to get Yūki to safety somewhere." Naruto stopped and turned towards their pursuers.

Hinata was about to yell out to Naruto, Sasuke put his hand on her shoulder. "He is right; we cannot guarantee Yūki safety with him being exhaused. Naruto has planty of chakra left he can delay them and slip away, but we need to keep moving."

Hinata looked at Sasuke with impossibly big eyes, it looked like she might start crying, then hung her head in defeat, he was right. Naruto was the only one that could delay them. She knew that the boy wouldn't engage the group himself, and keep a distance until the wolf was dead so they could escape. Yelling over her shoulder. "Naruto-kun take out the wolf" The rest was a code the two of them had worked out years ago, telling him what way they would turn as soon as they were out of visible range.

Naruto studied the group that was closing in on his position. The wolf were much smaller than the ones they had fought before, perhaps they had killed off all the adults. He still wasn't sure how he were supposed to kill it however, they had used their last explosive tags in the ravine.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu" boomed from the direction of his pursuers.

* * *

**Kakashi, following a ninken through a forest**

Kakashi was swearing as he ran at full speed behind the little dog. This wasn't good, he had summoned Pakkun earlier to find his students, the dog had a scroll on its back, it was a report on what had been extracted from the heads he had sent. He had been unconscious when the dog had unsummoned itself, not noticing it had returned, it was only because he needed to find his students he had gotten the report.

He had found a cave from the scroll they had left in the first one, there had been another scroll covered in a genjutsu at the entrance. He had followed the direction ending up following a ravine. The snow was red and the charred corpse of a large wolf was still lying there. There were signs of battle but no sign of any of the other participants. Someone had set off explosions on the side of the ravine and it had blocked his way. He had summoned the ninken to pick up where to go from there, unsealing pieces of cloth with his students scent on them. It had let him in another direction, up and out of the ravine instead of following it.

The report had made things much more complicated; he needed to find his students and fast. This was going to end badly if he didn't find them. He was feeling a little worse for wear, he had been traveling fast to catch up with his students, the fact that he hadn't caught up with them yet meant that someone was chasing them.

Pakkun had picked up a very clear trail, and he had been following it for hours. The trail was getting fresher; he had almost caught up with them. He came across a trio of dead shinobi, someone hadn't cleaned up yet, that meant it was very recent. He swelled a little with pride this was obviously Naruto's work. 'Minato-sensei, your boy is becoming a fine ninja."

Traveling even faster he spotted three shinobi and a wolf facing down a boy with blonde hair. He rushed towards the group. "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu" Kakashi was angry, the fire burned white hot, incinerating all three shinobi and the wolf.

Kakashi landed in front of Naruto with a shunshin, the boy attacked him in surprise. Easily avoiding the swing of the tired boy, he instead grabbed hold of it and steadied the boy preventing him from losing his balance. "Naruto, what happened? You look like hell. Where are the others?"

Naruto looked up at his sensei's face. "They took Yūki to get her to safety." He turned and pointed in the direction they would need to go.

Kakashi picked up the boy and slung him over his shoulder, now he just needed to catch up to the others. He ran in the direction Naruto had pointed.

Kakashi came up on a clearing; his two genin and Yūki were lying on the ground. The whole area was filled with shinobi, Kakashi counted 23; this was too many to take on, deciding on following them instead. The shinobi carried the three to a small compound at the base of a small mountain.

Naruto looked on in horror as his friends were carried into the compound. "We have to save them sensei, they might kill them!"

Kakashi closed his eye for a moment, and then looked at his student. "We cannot do anything right now; we need to rest and then attack when it gets dark. They will not be harmed." Kakashi's voice had turned grim with the last sentence.

* * *

**Hinata and Sasuke, 7 hours later, leaning against a wall in a cell**

Hinata was awakening; Sasuke was sitting next to her with a groggy expression, having just awoken a few minutes ago.

Both of them had been restrained and chakra suppressing seals on them. Hinata was angry, it hadn't been a patrol following them, they were there to force them into that clearing. As soon as they had reached the middle, they had been shot with tranquilizing darts.

She looked around, realizing that Yūki was not there. A clank was heard as the door to their cell was opened, a burly man with a large scar that looked like someone had tried to remove his right cheek with a knife, came into view. "What have you done to her?" She all but yelled. "Why were you so intent on capturing her?"

A voice sounded from behind the burly man. "Done to her? I'm afraid you're mistaken child, I have no interest in the woman."

The large man stepped aside. A slender man with greasy black hair and a light tan stepped into the room. "Very good, main house, she is of breeding age too, that is a great plus. What is the boy doing here?"

Hinata's face was painted with horror. '_Breeding age._'

The burly man smiled widely. "The boy is an Uchiha."

The slender man's eyes widened and an eerie smile spread on his face. "One of the last remaining Uchiha? That is a surprise, I would like to purchase him as well, how does triple the agreed payment for both of them sound?" The man turned around towards their apparent jailor.

Hinata spotted the Hitai-ate that was bound to his arm with the plate just over his elbow facing backwards. With an almost inhuman voice, she growled. "_**KUMO**_"

* * *

**A/N**:

*Does his best Schwarzenegger voice* "Remember when I said wasn't going to do cliffhangers?"

"That's right matrix you did!"

"I lied."

I kid, I kid, I hate cliffhangers, but a chapter is a chapter. I was considering waiting with posting this until chapter 10 is done, but that would ruin that I'm trying to get a regular update rate going with once in the weekdays and then as many as I can churn out as humanly possible over the weekends.

Thanks for all the reviews so far, remember I'm always happy to hear from people and suggestions are very welcome.

I am also looking for beta readers, if you're good at Grammar, spelling and can handle 10-20k words a week, do drop me a line :)

So the reason for the shinobi is finally revealed, hope you are enjoying the story so far.

I really hope I can get out another chapter(preferably two) this week; I'm currently in the process of moving and it is eating a lot of my free time this week unfortunately.

**animekingmike: **Yes Naruto post time-skip has pretty decent control, but imagine this as having just as much chakra, but pretty much having no ninjutsu (Besides kage bunshin) yet, nothing to train with to keep up with the larger pool.  
When he was trying to learn the frog summon it was a good example of how bad his control is pre time-skip, then add even more chakra to that.


	10. Chapter 10: Escape

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto or any associated characters.

**A/N**:

* * *

Welcome to chapter ten of Sister Lost.

Once more that same ol' song: I do not have any beta readers so spelling, characterization and such are all on me, feel free to point out any and all glaring errors. Especially since English isn't my first language. I will try to avoid all the regular pitfalls, but it will be unavoidable that things slip through; feedback will allow me to fix mistakes and prevent future ones. So tear my grammar and spelling a new one if you find errors.

With this chapter I'm officially past 50k words of story, WOOOOOOOOO

Thanks to **md5i** for the tremendous help with the grammar of this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 10: Rescue**

**Hinata and Sasuke, cell in enemy shinobi compound**

Sasuke was considering their options. They had been captured. Now they were apparently about to get sold off to Komugakure. He couldn't believe that they had been the target, how did the enemy even know they were coming?

There were so many questions and only a few answers. The shinobi had been after his teammate, he shuddered a little at what they had said before leaving. That would be their fate if they didn't escape from this.

Sasuke had no illusions about what would happen if they were taken to the Land of Lightning. One could only resist brainwashing for so long, eventually torture would break a person, positive and negative reinforcement would override what is left and they would become willing slaves.

Hinata's reaction to the Kumo shinobi had taken Sasuke by surprise, the quiet girl who only ever seemed lively around their blonde teammate had been straining against her restraints trying to jump towards the shinobi yelling and screaming. Swearing that she would kill him as soon as she could get her hands on him, daring him to come closer, even with her hands locked inside their restraints, which prevented hand seals.

The girl had slumped to the floor not long after they had left and was now looking at the door like she was looking at something on the other side of it without her Byakugan active. Sasuke had tried to talk to her, but she was completely unresponsive.

"Hinata... Hinata..." Hinata turned her head towards Sasuke, looking at him with a dead look in her eyes. "This isn't the first time Kumo has tried something like this is it?" Sasuke looked at the broken girl sitting on the floor a few feet away from him. She just nodded and then turned her head back towards the door, looking at nothing.

Sasuke preferred the super angry Hinata to whatever this was, that stare was beyond creepy.

Hinata's mind wasn't present, it was trapped in a repeating loop of that night. Her seven-year-old self was standing in the common room of the main Hyūga house. Her training was garb soaked in blood as she saw the door open and her father entering. Taking a step in and closing the door before the stoic Hyūga mask cracked and fell apart as he dropped to his knees crying, clutching the lifeless body of her baby sister.

Sasuke had been trying to get an actual response from the girl several times since his first attempt hours ago and eventually gave up. The situation was hopeless. He had been thinking of a way to escape, but with just the two of them it was impossible. They had parted with Naruto almost ten hours ago, and he wasn't sure if the dobe even survived. They hadn't heard from Kakashi since they split up to get away from the wolves. Despair was starting to take hold of Sasuke, they couldn't get away on their own, there would be no rescue coming. He wasn't ever going to get to savor the moment when he finally killed _that man_.

A rumble was echoing through the hall, growing in intensity. "What the hell is that?" Sasuke exclaimed. Moments later the floor and the walls shook, followed by the sound of explosions.

Hinata's head snapped up, her eyes went wide for a moment. She then slowly closed them, her face settling into a serene expression, a faint smile lining her lips. She turned her head towards Sasuke. In barely a whisper, voice still a little coarse, from her thirty minutes of yelling and screaming threats at the Kumo shinobi. "It's the sound of a promise."

Sasuke was staring at the girl in surprise. '_What?_' Then it dawned on him. The dobe was reckless enough to attack the place head on in an attempt to save them, what was he thinking? He was going to get himself killed.

* * *

**Kakashi and Naruto, 1 hour earlier, shelf on the mountainside next to the shinobi compound**

"WE HAVE TO GO SAVE THEM KAKASHI-SENSEI" Naruto was furious, why where they still at the camp? It had been almost nine hours since they were taken. He was about to charge the compound alone if that was what it took.

What Kakashi had told him kept running through his mind. It was Kumo; _they _had taken Hinata-chan from him. He could feel his anger rising, everything seemed to go red.

A hand gripped his shoulder. "Calm down Naruto. You need to stay calm!" Kakashi took a step past his student and turned to look at him. "If you attack before we are ready, you will endanger both of them." Kakashi was relieved when the boy's eyes, which had a slight tinge of red, returned to the normal blue.

Kakashi waited for Naruto to calm down completely before continuing. "Kumo cannot allow any witnesses, if we get any proof of Kumo being here we can rally the other three elemental nations in retaliation against them." Kakashi placed a hand inside his tool pouch. "We need to time this carefully; our priority is to save Hinata and Sasuke. To do so, I need you to create a distraction, I will enter the compound, freeing them, while you try to distract as many of their numbers as possible." He had dispatched Pakkun earlier with a message of the location to the Hokage. A team of ANBU would come, eradicate the clan, and look for evidence of Kumo being involved. His priority was to save his cute little students and their client.

Naruto eyed Kakashi. He knew their sensei was good, but to go alone into that compound would require one big distraction. He watched as Kakashi pulled out a large stack of paper out of his pouch. Naruto looked at the papers, eyes lighting up like a kid on its birthday, _Explosive_ _tags_. There had to be more than a hundred there, he couldn't believe that their sensei was carrying that many around. Naruto had bought a few to bring on the mission but they were so expensive. Their teacher much be incredibly rich to afford that many. He had seen Kakashi working on something when he got out of his tent perhaps these were it.

Kakashi pulled out another stack of papers, there were only ten of them and they were square. "Naruto, I made these this morning, it's a design invented by my own sensei. They are a lot more powerful than those," pointing to the stack Naruto was now holding in his hand. "Use them to rig entrances to as many buildings as you can to detonate when we're retreating."

Kakashi pulled out a map. "I drew this while you were asleep."

* * *

**Kakashi, waiting for the signal to begin the rescue operation**

Kakashi was sticking to the outer wall of the compound, sneaking a look over the wall. His white suit prevented his outline from being spotted while he was scoping out potential targets for when it started. He had found a building with two shinobi guarding the door. That seemed like a good building to start searching for his students and their client.

Naruto had picked out the spot for him to start from. he had to give the boy credit, it was a sound plan. He would come in from the side, while Naruto would provide a distraction from the front and the back. He had left before the boy had come up with the primary distraction, needing a good forty minutes to circle around the compound to get to the right place without being spotted.

He heard a rumble in the distance. 'That must be the signal.' The two guards he was observing turned their heads towards the sound, he hit them both with a genjutsu while they were distracted, delaying their perception of sensory impressions by half a second. Kakashi appeared between them, with their reactions slowed, he had cut both their throats with a kunai in each hand before they reacted.

Kakashi opened the door and unsealed a tantō as he entered. He had not done much in the way of silent killing since he stepped down as an ANBU captain, but this was the time to pick up the habit again. Using Raikiri or even Chidori would attract too much attention. And since most Kumo shinobi used lightning jutsu it was safer to rely on kenjutsu if he were to go unnoticed until he had his students in tow.

He walked slowly through the corridor, the sound of people running echoed off the stonewalls. Explosions broke the silence in uneven intervals. He hadn't run across anyone in the five minutes he had been creeping along. That settled matters, Naruto had made a very efficient distraction, he would have to get a hold of a certain seal mater once they were safely back in Konohagakure to teach the boy how to make explosive tags. He hadn't heard the very distinct _Crack _the Minato specials made. The boy had followed instructions and was saving them to cover the escape.

Dashing forward he deftly sliced the throat of a man that turned a corner towards him, flinging most of the blood off the tantō in the same movement without slowing down his advance through the corridors of the building. That was only the second person he had encountered inside the building, there had been no alarm raised in the building yet, only a distant noise from outside was ringing.

He pushed open a heavy door, a hallway with reinforced doors stretched out in front of him. He had found the cells. Now to locate his students, he wandered past a few empty cells before spotting Yūki, going past the cell, as he needed to free the others first before getting her out. He found the two sitting in the next cell, what met him surprised him, Hinata was smiling and Sasuke was humming a tune. He felt like bashing his head against a wall there was something seriously wrong with his team; normal genin should have their spirits broken by the situation alone.

Sasuke looked up at Kakashi through the hole in the door, almost looking surprised. "Hn. I had half expected the dobe to show up. You're late sensei. I, uh, kinda lost track of time but that is at least three days, trying to set a new record or got lost on the road of life again?"

Kakashi hung his head; they had no respect for him, when all this way over he would have to beat some respect into them during training or something, and maybe start to show up on time. Still their faith in their teammate was impressive.

He went over to his students and released them from their bonds, as they were done stretching after sitting in that awkward position for so many hours, Kakashi motioned them to follow him.

Kakashi ran through a long sequence of hand signs and placed his hand on the lock to the cell next door. A sizzling sound was heard and it swung in, Yūki was on the floor crawling away from the three. She hadn't been restrained, there was no need to do that to hold a civilian.

"Please..." She crawled away from them, her face twisted in terror, as she finally came to rest pressing against the back wall. "Please-Please don't kill me, I-I didn't know." A tear rolled down her left cheek.

Kakashi looked at the woman as she was cowering. "We're here you rescue you." He hadn't been expecting that reaction. Had they done something to her? It seemed unlikely since they hadn't touched his students.

"Just leave me here; I don't deserve to be rescued. It is my fault, I heard the man as he entered your cell a few hours ago. It's my fault they knew you were coming." Her voice broke as she looked at the three with tears streaming down her face. "I was allowed to send a letter back with the message that we were departing. I mentioned her." She pointed at Hinata. Yūki had in her elation that she was finally going home again, written about the three children that was going to be her escort, about the little girl with the strange white eyes.

Kakashi closed his eye, and let out a small sigh. She blamed herself, it wasn't her fault. Civilians wouldn't know about such things, he would have to first ferret out who had sold the information on the receiving end and once they got back home he would have to figure out how such information made it past censoring. Any mail sent by hawk from civilians was screened to avoid information leaks; there was something wrong if information about a bloodline had made it past.

He looked at the small woman that was broken for the second time in as many months, she was once again captive and had blamed herself, Kakashi hoped she wouldn't become a danger to herself. "_Yūki_, listen to me, none of this is your fault, there is something larger at play here, something of this magnitude cannot happen just because of a letter." He went over to the woman and offered her a hand; Yūki let him help her to her feet.

They ran back through the corridors in hopes of finding their equipment, it was too cold to go without their gear. Kakashi exploded into a room where three guards were sitting; before they had time to react, he kicked the table they were sitting around pinning on to the wall with a sickening crunch. His tantō sliced the throat of the guy to the right of the table, while grabbing the face of the guy on the left with a hand crackling with electricity, frying him instantly.

In that moment, a klaxon was heard. 'Shit!' The guard that had been pinned against the wall had gotten close enough to the alarm trigger. He motioned for the three to come in and pointed to a table in the corner where their gear was spread out. Letting them put things on while he went back out into the corridor. Several shinobi turned the corner further down the corridor, Kakashi cursed to himself and went into the room, they could not fight that many in the cramped corridors without risking injury.

Kakashi grabbed Yūki and threw her to Sasuke who threw her over his shoulder. Kakashi then started running through seals, much faster than before, putting both hands on the wall, causing it to crumble in a circle big enough to go through, stepping out into the cold air.

The four of them stared at the devastation all around them as they ran for the nearest wall.

* * *

**Naruto, setting up the distraction**

Naruto was sitting on the edge of the shelf looking down at the compound, he had sent twenty clones with explosive tags out to circle around to the far end of the compound. There was still twenty-five minutes until he was supposed to start the distraction and he was still working out all the little details. Standing up he made another twenty clones, pairing them up and giving each pair one of the special tags Kakashi had made. Since he only had ten of them, it was best to have a backup to continue with the attack in case the carrying clone was dispelled. He split the groups sending four clones to approach each side after they had started, bringing four with him into the charge.

He glanced sideways to the mountainside; a grin almost split his face in two as an idea formed.

Twenty minutes passed, it was time to start. Naruto got up and looked at the clone army standing behind him on the shelf. He had created seventy clones to carry explosive tags, saving ten for himself. Naruto gestured out on the mountainside, twenty clones broke off the army and placed themselves with ten yards' spacing between them. The remaining fifty clones and Naruto retreated away from the clones, signaling to start as soon as they had gotten to a safe distance.

All twenty clones dug a hole in the snow that covered the mountainside and placed their tags, igniting them instantly.

Twenty perfectly synchronized explosions shook the mountainside, starting an avalanche. A massive amount of snow and rock shaken loose by the explosions started to rumble down the mountainside heading directly for the compound. Naruto and his clones ran to the left and slightly behind of the large volume of mass moving at an increasingly higher velocity.

The avalanche smashed against the outer wall of the compound, overwhelming it and moving into the compound itself, burying almost half the area.

Twenty clones split off from the assault team and charged into the area looking for targets of opportunity like the ones coming in from the other side had. Naruto ordered the remaining thirty clones to hang back and pick off targets once people started to come out. He then broke off to enter the fray himself.

A of wave memories from clones dispelling hit him detailing that he had caught several people in explosions as they exited the various buildings. There were a few shinobi milling about the place.

Naruto boosted off and landed near an enemy, as he set down he threw out a punch, the shinobi managed to guard himself with his right arm. The arm snapped like a twig, the pain distracted the shinobi for a moment, giving Naruto enough time to place an explosive tag on him, boosting off towards the next target as he set off the tag. Killing the man in melee would have taken too long; there were a lot of enemies emerging from the buildings. A lot of them were caught off guard by the kamikaze clones, he was down to five or so clones from the initial charge of forty.

Coming up to a shinobi wielding a naginata, Naruto boosted towards him. The shinobi seeing him airborne extended the weapon towards him. Naruto quickly formed a clone next to him and replaced himself with it. The clone was impaled on the blade and disappeared in a puff of smoke; Naruto grabbed hold of it right below the blade and hit the shaft with a chakra-reinforced blow, causing the shinobi to lose his grip. In a smooth movement, Naruto flipped the weapon around and impaled the unfortunate shinobi with his own weapon. It was a boy no older than he was. Naruto had no sympathy for any of them, they all had to die, they had taken Hinata-chan. Now they had to pay.

'This is taking too long, where is Kakashi?' More people were emerging from the buildings, and some had begun to crawl free of the snow. An orange blur streaked across the sky above him.

* * *

**Kakashi and company, having just exited out into the yard**

Kakashi had barely slowed down to create a wall to cover the hole. He was assessing the area as he ran alongside his students, Naruto was incredibly destructive with explosive tags it seemed, a lot of doors had charred corpses and bits of flesh scattered around them. He looked at all the snow, how someone had that was clever enough to use a mountain as a weapon of destruction gotten so low Academy scores. It boggled the mind how terrible the grading system was, if stuff like that slipped through.

Sasuke had his sharingan spinning looking for potential threats as they ran for their lives. A shinobi was crawling out from the snow not too far away; he readied a shuriken, having only one hand free really limited his choices in how to fight. He was interrupted just as he was about to throw it.

"BANZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIII II" An orange blur landed next to the shinobi, looked at them and promptly exploded.

Sasuke wished he didn't have his sharingan running at that moment, it would forever be recorded by his eyes, the shock-wave that ripped skin and muscle from the shinobi, how the flames following right behind had flash burned everything. He was starting to see why so many Uchiha retired from active duty to work in the police force at a young age. Remembering every detail of every single kill, would take its toll on anyone.

A loud thump was heard behind them and Naruto fell into formation as he raised his arm as a signal. "How big are those explosions from those tags sensei?"

Kakashi looked at the boy running next to him. "Shit! RUN, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

They spend up, _CRACK_ as a shockwave buffeted them from behind, jumping over the wall without slowing down they landed on the snow on the other side at a full run and kept going. The remaining nine tags exploded almost at the same time _**CRACK.**_ The shockwave from the explosions joined together toppled the wall behind them and knocked them over.

Getting up quickly, Kakashi picked up Yūki instead of Sasuke, freeing his students to move as fast as they could.

* * *

**Team Kakashi and Yūki, a few hours later**

Naruto was carrying Hinata, she was using her Byakugan to make sure they weren't followed, using it to concentrate on the area behind them meant she couldn't see where she was running, so Naruto had unceremoniously scooped her up as they ran without even slowing down.

"Looks pretty clear, scanned an area of three miles around us now, there is no one in sight." Hinata was a storm of emotions, not that it would show behind the stoic mask that was the trademark of a Hyūga. She was happy to be back at Naruto's side, her protector, the one who had just taken on an entire clan to save her. They had just run away, there was a Kumo back in that base, she knew that it had been the best option, even without her Byakugan active she had noticed how the man carried himself the Kumo shinobi was strong. It infuriated her; they needed to become stronger, strong enough to never back down.

She had been lost and felt helpless after the shinobi had left them in their cell, her mind playing that night repeatedly. It was not until the rumble had interrupted her thoughts and she somehow knew that Naruto was coming for her she had felt like everything would work out. He would always be there for her, she closed her eyes and a small smile tugged at her lips at the thought. Her eyes sprang open with a faint blush spreading across her face where had _that_ come from, she squirmed a little in his arms to be let down and resumed running beside the others.

Several hours later the night was rapidly approaching. Kakashi had created a bivouac for them to take shelter under as they prepared to make camp for the night. There had been no sign of anyone following them so far and they could afford to take a break.

After having built a small fire to warm some food over, they ate in silence.

Yūki was nervous, she was going to have to share a tent with Hinata later, it had been her fault they had been after them, and she wasn't sure how the girl would react when they were alone. Hinata had already gone into the tent; she could be waiting to attack her when she entered.

Naruto and Sasuke were still sitting starting into the fire as well. Kakashi was going to stand watch the entire night, so they were only putting off going to sleep.

Sasuke had a new death to add to his slowly increasing collection of nightmare fuel, he wasn't really looking forward to see it again, which he was sure to do as his brain picked apart the sensory input from the sharingan.

Naruto had killed a lot of people today, while he hadn't seen many of the kills he had a long list of faces twisted in terror and surprise before the clones blew up. He was a bit afraid of the nightmares; his normal nightmares were more than plenty. Deep down however, he was more afraid of not having nightmares about it. Being able to distance himself from killing that many people, like he had when they had escaped from the small cave a few days ago. It hadn't plagued him at all and he was afraid that he might be losing his humanity, like many of his nightmares had indicated he would. He wished he could have some time alone with Hinata-chan so he could talk with her about it.

After sitting for a while, both boys got up and headed into their tent. There was no reason to put it off any longer.

Yūki was left alone with the fire, and decided she should probably get some rest as well; she was sore after being carried over the shoulder for so long. Standing up and walking over to the tent, she hesitated for a moment before opening.

Hinata was sitting in the middle of the tent watching her as she entered. Yūki flinched a little when she locked eyes with her, and broke eye contact looking downwards.

Hinata let out a small sigh. "I don't blame you Yūki-san. It hurts a little to see you afraid of me."

Yūki stared at the girl, nothing got past those eyes of hers it seemed. She plopped down on her sleeping bag, quickly stripping off her jacket and pants and crawled into the sleeping bag.

Hinata followed suit and went to sleep as well, she couldn't change how things was. Hopefully it would be better once they had all gotten some sleep.

* * *

**The next morning**

Naruto was the last to get up; the others were staring at him as he exited the tent.

"Wow, you look like shit" Sasuke said with a smirk. "Didn't sleep well?"

"No, had nightmares." Naruto replied as he stood up.

"Why are you smiling then?" Sasuke studied the blonde.

"Because I had nightmares." Naruto said as he sat down pulling out a ration bar.

Sasuke thought about that for a moment. 'Oh' Sasuke had killed a shinobi and a wolf on the mission so far, but Naruto had a death toll past 50 by now, it was no wonder he had nightmares. Still he wasn't sure why the dobe was happy about it. 'Dobe...' Sasuke thought about it, it didn't really seem right to call him that anymore. The blonde had saved them all several times on the mission, never even mentioning it, just doing what was necessary. "Hey Naruto... Thanks."

The blonde eyed him suspiciously. "For what exactly?"

Sasuke let out a small "hn" then looked him in the eyes. "For saving our asses for the third time since we started this mission. You have really come through for us."

Naruto busted out his widest smile at that. "You're welcome."

Hinata was looking back and forth between the two. That was completely unexpected; maybe the Uchiha really was warming to them.

They broke camp an hour later and set out towards their original goal. Traveling as fast as they could without exhausting themselves, their supplies were dwindling; Hinata did occasional area scans with her Byakugan, directing Naruto to send out clones to catch any animals they came across. They had managed to come across a deer, it had helped a lot on the food situation but they would still be cutting it close.

* * *

**A couple of days later**

They were making good time and it seemed like they would managed to get to their goal before they would run out of water, various animals were sealed in their scrolls, the biggest concern was water, with rationing it should stretch to their arrival at their goal.

In the distance, a howl from a wolf was heard. Hinata stopped for a moment, focusing as much chakra as her eyes could handle, stretching her vision to focus a few miles behind them, a large wolf was running towards them, behind were at least forty people, her eyes widened when she save him, a tall, lanky man with greasy hair, the Kumo shinobi were pursuing them.

She set off towards the others in full speed. "Kakashi-sensei they found our trail, there are forty shinobi behind us, and they are gaining on us."

Kakashi looked thoughtful for a moment. "We need to keep moving, we cannot fight that many without sustaining casualties." Everyone sped up a little; they had already been traveling at close to what was possible for any sustained period.

More than an hour had already passed, the force behind them had followed suit and increased their pace, and they were now in normal visible distance.

A muted _Thunk_ was heard and time seemed to slow down as Hinata stumbled forward, a kunai embedded in her back, right behind her heart. She fell forward. Naruto watched in horror as she finally landed face first in the snow.

Sasuke's sharingan was spinning as a massive amount of killing intend flooded the group. He looked Naruto, who was kneeling over Hinata. The hand he had placed on her back was changing; the nails were getting longer. He looked up at the boy's face, his eyes had turned blood red, his teeth were turning serrated and he had _actual fangs_. The whisker marks grew darker and more pronounced. His golden mop of hair looked like it was electrified and was standing on edge. Then a huge amount of chakra leaked out wrapping him in a shroud of red that would be visible even without his sharingan.

Naruto threw his head back, let out a cry of anger and pain, and then he was gone, Sasuke blinked for a moment, he had moved faster than he could follow even with his sharingan.

Kakashi was kneeling over Hinata, checking for a pulse.

* * *

**A/N**:

Welcome to Cliffhanger City  
Population: You guys :D

Thanks for the overwhelming response to the previous chapter; sorry it took so long to get the follow up chapter up. As an apology, there will be another two or three more chapters this week. Chapter status is posted on my profile.

Happy you guys like it so far, and I will return as soon as able with Chapter 11: The Cloak of the Fox

So we had the first glimpse at the events five years ago, there's a lot more coming about that night, more details, and eventually an entire chapter about it, but that is far off into the future.


	11. Chapter 11: The Cloak of the Fox

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto or any associated characters.

* * *

**A/N**:

Welcome to chapter eleven of Sister Lost.

Once more that same ol' song: I do not have any beta readers so spelling, characterization and such are all on me, feel free to point out any and all glaring errors. Especially since English isn't my first language. I will try to avoid all the regular pitfalls, but it will be unavoidable that things slip through; feedback will allow me to fix mistakes and prevent future ones. So tear my grammar and spelling a new one if you find errors.

If you'd rather avoid gore, skip from the fourth _Blood _to the next instance of bold text and move back a paragraph.

* * *

**Chapter 11: The Cloak of the Fox**

**Naruto**

_Blood_

Naruto opened his eyes; he was standing in what appeared to be a sewer. The smell of stagnant water permeated the air, he looked down, he was standing in water to his knees. For a moment, he wished that his nose wasn't so sensitive.

He wasn't wearing the white snowsuit he had a minute ago, but was in his regular orange jumpsuit.

_Blood_

A keening sound was filling the tunnel it starting as a low hum, but was slowly gaining in volume. He looked in direction the sound was coming from; he started going towards it perhaps he could find some answers in that direction.

The tunnel opened up into a larger room, two large gates barred, the thick bars mottled and scratched. On the middle of the gate hung a pristine piece of paper, on it was written the word Seal.

_Blood_

Two huge eyes opened, glowing red, looking at him like a predator would a rabbit.

**"JAILOR" **The voice boomed out from inside the cage, almost knocking him over.

Naruto held his ground; he looked up at the eyes floating in the dark. He knew that voice; it whispered things to him at night. Barring his teeth, while almost growling he said. "Kyuubi"

A large set of teeth joined the floating eyes, in still a bass heavy voice but at lower volume. "Not afraid of me I see, _interesting_. Why have you come before me jailor?" The entity of rage and killing intent continued with a low growl "Have you come seeking _**POWER**_?"

Naruto was looking at the large creature hiding in the dark. Had he come here on his own? Was this in his mind? The place was kinda filthy; he hoped that his whole mind wasn't like that. He could just imagine the snide comments from Sasuke about it. 'Power?' He supposed he had, the power to take revenge on the people pursuing them. "I have." Naruto looked at the teeth as more became visible into a large and extremely creepy smile.

"The power to rend, main and eviscerate your enemies. Such power does not come for free, are you willing to show me a bloodbath worthy of my name?" A sound that was almost a laugher followed the question.

Naruto looked up at the floating eyes. He would do anything, anything it took to avenge her. He nodded at the fox.

A rumble of a laughter echoed out of the cage. "Very well, I shall grant you a small amount of my power this time. If you don't hold up your end of the bargain, sealed or not I shall eat your soul."

Naruto blinked, he was crouched next to Hinata, he lifted his hand it had touched her jacket close to kunai. 'Is she alive?' Was his last coherent thought before he turned his palm towards himself, a smear of red was on his fingers.

_Blood_

He was flying through the air, faster than he had ever moved; the world had shifted to a strange saturation of red, with all other colors slightly muted. He felt light, like all the trouble in the world had been lifted from his shoulders, leaving only anger, hate and a need for vengeance behind.

Everything seemed to slow down around him as he approached the lanky man standing next to a large wolf. He held out his right hand, the red cloak forming long claws at the end of his fingers, he was going to show the overgrown doggie what a real predator was. The man next to it was smiling at him; he would have to be taught a lesson as well, he brought out his left arm in a similar manner.

The claws tore through the side of the wolf as he went past, cutting through fur, muscle and sinew as a hot knife through butter, disemboweling the wolf. The smiling man just sidestepped the swipe at him, his smile growing even wider.

Naruto landed on the shinobi standing behind them, the force of the impact shattering the torso of the man, as he set off to the woman standing next to him, closing his serrated teeth around her throat, ripping it out in a shower of blood, bringing his claws to bear on the person beside her.

Half the shinobi broke rank and started running for their lives. 'No matter, I will just snap their spines instead of tearing out their throats.' He thought as he eviscerated four people, who had taken a step towards him with a wild swing of his claws.

He set off towards the shinobi that was fleeing going for the man the furthest away, slashing anything he could reach while flying towards the man. Landing a foot behind him, he swung his claw through the back of his neck, causing a satisfying crunch as the claws reached the spine. 'Have to teach them that running is futile'

Naruto whirled through most of the shinobi, one managed to bring a pair of scimitars up to parry the claw on his right arm, his left darted around the steel and claimed both his hands, as they fell down to the snow his right continued its path and tore out his throat. After tearing through all of the unaffiliated shinobi, disemboweling the last one, he turned towards the smiling man.

The man just looked at him and unbound the Hitai-ate on his arm, tying it around his forehead. "The Konoha Jinchūriki interesting, _interesting_. The Byakugan, the Sharingan and the Jinchūriki on the same team, under the tutelage of the copycat. Most interesting, I would stay and test your abilities, from the show of strength, you just gifted me with, I'd say there is a place amongst us. Think about it, you wouldn't have to hide, you could receive training from our two Jinchūriki in how to use those gifts of yours."

Naruto more growled than spoke. "**I would never join you Kumo scum!**"

"A pity, such a pity. Well it seems your guardian has finally decided to join in, and that is my cue to leave, we will meet again, I shall have those eyes and the power you carry." The shinobi seemed to electrify, massive amounts of energy was released, a bolt arched to Naruto causing him to writhe in pain on the ground as the rest of the energy dissipated and the shinobi faded out of view. "Until next time little Jinchūriki."

Naruto fell to his knees as the cloak dissolved around him, he looked towards the white figure in the distance the electricity around his hand fading, before he appeared next to him. Naruto had fallen to his hands as well, stretching an arm towards the white character in front of him.

"Kakashi-sensei... Is Hinata?" He started to black out.

"Sh. .. .live, Na..to" Was the last he heard before losing consciousness.

Blinking a couple of times, Naruto found himself standing in the stagnant water in front of the gate, blood was spreading out in the water where he stood, his orange jumpsuit covered in blood and bits of people.

The red eyes bored into him from behind the bars. "The sacrifice has been deemed adequate. I would like to have tasted the life blood of the smiling man as well, but sometimes a quarry escapes, happens to even veteran hunters." The large row of teeth appeared in the darkness. "Your soul is safe... _for now_."

* * *

**Kakashi and company, just after Naruto disappeared from their midst**

Kakashi quickly lowered the now unconscious Yūki to the ground and put her in a lock so she wouldn't suffocate if she threw up.

Appearing next to Hinata, feeling for a pulse while barking an order to Sasuke. "Get an adrenalin injection and keep it ready for Yūki, a civilian exposed to that much killing intend might go into shock and die. Keep an eye on her, and don't look at the fight, it's not something you want to remember for the rest of your days."

Breathing a sigh of relief as he felt the steady heartbeat of the girl, she stirred under his touch. He placed his hand on her shoulders to prevent her from rising. Most likely her system would be flooded with endorphins and she wouldn't be able to feel the kunai, moving could cause it to go in further and kill her.

Hinata's eyes flickered open. "Wh-what happened?" She felt the hand holding her down.

"Hinata, I need to you activate your Byakugan and tell me if it is safe to remove the kunai so we can treat the wound with some coagulant and dress it." Kakashi looked at the girl as fear spread across her features.

"Byakugan!" looking at the kunai embedded in her back she could see if had stopped just before it managed to get past the ribcage. She owned Anko-san a few sticks of dango, the mesh had ripped as the kunai had forced its way through, but the reinforced threading had slowed it down enough to make it a flesh wound instead of being fatal. "You can remove it sensei, it's not touching anything vital."

Kakashi pulled out the kunai, he then gently lifted the back of the jacket and her mesh, allowing access to the wound. "This is going to hurt." He said as he poured the coagulant into the wound.

Hinata back felt like it was on fire, but the pain brought clarity through the endorphin fueled haze she was in, with her Byakugan she looked into the distance behind them. The blood soaked Naruto wrapped in red chakra that was tearing through people. "Naruto-kun..." A tear rolled down her cheek.

Kakashi heard the whisper. He looked back towards the carnage for a moment; the boy had almost killed off all of the enemy shinobi. "Hinata, shut it off, you shouldn't watch that." Feeling satisfied about the result the powder was having on the wound, he waved Sasuke back over to apply pressure to the wound. Standing up, he ran towards the massacre, while gathering chakra in his palm for a Raikiri.

* * *

**Team Kakashi and an unconscious Yūki, some hours later in a small cave.**

Kakashi had carried everyone but Sasuke to the cave.

Hinata was lying very still to allow the wound to stop bleeding, some healing salve had been applied around the wound to speed up the process, but it would still be days before she would be able to move with any kind of speed without reopening it. She looked into the fire a few yards away from her and let out a sigh. Naruto still hadn't regained consciousness, she had asked Kakashi about what had happened after she hit the ground, their sensei had been even more cryptic than usual.

He had told her one thing, Naruto had killed all those people because he thought they had killed her. It drew some weird parallels to their fight in the ravine, but she hadn't been there to stop him like he did for her.

How he had behaved while covered in that red chakra was like what he had told her about the night he killed Mizuki. It had to be connected to what he had said he would tell her about when they got back.

Yūki and Naruto had been placed in their tents. Kakashi was sitting with his back to the fire staring out the cave entrance.

She looked at Sasuke, he hadn't said a word since they had started moving to get away from the scene of battle. He just stared at things with a dull look in his eyes.

Sasuke was reeling. The chakra that had rolled off Naruto had been foul and full of anger. He had been moving faster than he could follow even with his sharingan, he hadn't caught up with him until the wolf had been falling to the ground. He had seen how he had killed five of the shinobi before Kakashi had ordered him to turn off his bloodlimit. A feeling of nausea had been haunting him since then; his eyes had been teaching him how to do the move where he had ripped the throat out of that kunoichi with his teeth. It was something his growing repertoire of stolen taijutsu could have done without.

Besides that what the hell was that power, he had never seen anything like it, the killing intend had been paralyzing, it had almost killed their client by proximity alone. The fact that he still hadn't awoken, now ten hours later, showed that there were some serious drawbacks to temporary boosts of power like that.

He looked at his other teammate, she had been so close to dying and he was just frozen where he stood, Naruto had at least gone over to her before he went feral. It make him feel weak, the fact that he hadn't responded to the situation at all and instead just shut down until Kakashi had given him an order.

He got up and headed into his tent to get some sleep, he would have to keep watch in five hours.

Kakashi was in deep thought. That Kumo shinobi had been very skilled; Naruto had been moving at speeds most special Jōnin would have trouble evading. 'What was a shinobi of that skill doing out in the middle of nowhere? This whole thing doesn't make sense at all. It seems some house cleaning is in order when we get back.'

He let out a sigh and pulled his bingo book, he had seen that Kumo before, flipping through the pages, reaching the end with no information about who he could be. Putting the bingo book back and drew out one of his other books and settled down for the five-hour shift.

* * *

**Two days later**

Hinata was starting to grow restless, Naruto still hadn't awoken. The wound on her back had scabbed over and it was itching like crazy. It was important that she didn't touch it at all until she had been over treatment by a medic-nin. She didn't mind if it did leave a scar, it was the type that would serve as a reminder that she needed to become stronger, but of course if it could be prevented that would be nice.

They had been close to running out of drinkable water, but Kakashi had managed to find a small spring not too far away that was drinkable after it had been boiled.

Sasuke had been silent for the most part; Hinata was starting to get tired of that stupid "hn". Yūki had awoken after the first night and was now avoiding her as much as possible.

Hinata was cooking a deer haunch, when Naruto's tent started rustling. That brightened the day instantly. He was dressed in a shirt and boxers, Kakashi had stripped his clothes for washing, the amount of blood it had absorbed had made it stiff as a board, by the time they managed to make camp.

Her lifted spirit was crushed when she locked eyes with the boy, they seemed dull, like he wasn't really there, he looked at her with what could only be described as deep sorrow as he sat down near the fire. Keeping eye contact with her for a long time, occasionally opening his mouth then closing it again like he was trying to say something, finally it seemed like he had found his voice, but what came out sounded hollow and flat. "I'm sorry Hinata-chan."

She stared at him, what was he talking about, he had saved them from their pursuers. Why was he sorry?

Naruto closed his eyes, took a deep breath and let it out before opening them again. "I'm sorry, I couldn't kill the Kumo, he got away. I wasn't strong enough."

It was all Hinata could do to not get up and slap him the idiot was blaming himself, instead she just looked at him and motioned for him to sit beside her as she unsealed another haunch, having been out for two days he would probably be able to eat one on his own.

They just sat in silence until the food was ready.

After they had eaten, Kakashi pulled Naruto outside the cave. He promptly planted his fist in the stomach of the boy causing him to double over in pain. "You idiot, you could have been killed. In fact it is luck that you didn't, that Kumo shinobi could have killed you at any moment, instead he tried to recruit you. Now Kumogakure knows who you are, they will try again, you will have a bounty on you just like your friends does."

He helped Naruto up. "That being said, I am proud of you. You placed your teammates high enough that you were willing to suffer the consequences of using the Kyuubi's powers."

* * *

**A week later**

They were finally there, a large mansion stretched out in front of them. A maid opened the door as they came close, Yūki rushed inside and ambled up the stairs. Team Kakashi followed at a leisurely pace.

They entered a large office; Yūki was standing in front of the table talking with a little round man sitting in a large leather chair.

Hinata was the last to come into the office, the veins around her eyes bulging. "Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi gave her a small nod.

Hinata darted forward towards the butler that was standing next to the man in the leather chair. Before the butler could react, he was hit with a Jūken strike right in the heart. The butler crumbled to the floor and with a small puff of a smoke revealed a short heavyset man wearing a mask.

Both Yūki and the man in the chair scrambled away from the dead man on the floor. "I demand to know what is going on, what did you do to my butler, and who is that man on the floor?"

The shinobi lying dead on the floor had nothing to identify him, no Hitai-ate or anything or the sorts, Kakashi cursed under his breath, another dead end. He hoped the ANBU would find some evidence when they reached the compound. At this rate, they wouldn't have any concrete proof that Kumo was involved.

The corpse of the real butler was never found, Kakashi had a sinking feeling that he might have been killed with a raiton jutsu, but without the corpse there was no way to verify it and no way to link it to what they had just been through.

Yūki's farther put them up in some guest rooms for a few days so they could relax before making the hard journey home.

Yūki had come to Hinata's room and apologized profusely, which quickly turned into Yūki crying into Hinata's shoulder as she awkwardly tried to comfort the woman, it had been a very trying month.

Sasuke had been quiet for most of the time, even more so than usual. There had been no snide remarks since the last fight.

He had withdrawn into himself dealing with the memories that had resurfaced when he was hit by the massive killing intend. He had felt something similar when _that man_ had killed everyone he knew, and now he was reliving some of the time spend in Tsukuyomi, every time he closed his eyes.

* * *

**Team Kakashi, Twenty-three days later, Gates of Konohagakure**

The return trip had been relatively painless, a blizzard had delayed them a day, but nothing major.

Sasuke had gone back to his stoic self instead of the zombie version they had been forced to put up with for the first week of the return trip.

Naruto had looked like crap every single morning on the return trip, as if he had not slept much or at all during the night. Several times, he had fallen asleep leaning against Hinata around the campfire when they had been eating, which of course lead to the other two sitting grinning at them.

Naruto was back to his hyperactive self by the time they reached the gates. He was walking with half a tree worth of leaves stuck to his face and a look of deep concentration as he tried to make them turn. Hinata was walking with a leaf hovering over her palm. Sasuke was watching exercise with his Sharingan spinning that had to be a Hyūga thing, chakra shot out of her palm and hit the leaf like a tiny spear. She had managed to punch a hole in the leaf yesterday, Sasuke wasn't even aware it was possible to do something like that with just pure chakra, it had to require an insane level of control. He had tried to copy it, but when he tried to project out the chakra, he lost control of the leaf and it sailed away in the wind.

Sasuke had instead been spending his time maintaining the Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu for prolonged periods, working on his chakra reserves and control, by having the orbs circle around the group. He had picked up a minor water jutsu when he had accidently set a bush of fire, which Kakashi had put out by controlling an orb of water from a nearby lake. While he would never be as strong in a technique that was an affinity, the Sharingan allowed a certain amount of leeway at the expenditure of more chakra.

The winters in the Land of Fire were typically very mild, it rarely snowed, instead winter was the time for rain, and they had experienced quite a bit of it during the travel back. Sasuke hated the rain, it really did a number on his favorite techniques, but Kakashi had said that it was a very good time to train as it required more concentration to keep fire going in the rain, and he would need to be able to do it, lest he be caught without his primary affinity against an enemy.

They were finally home; fifty-six days were a long time for their first mission. Naruto was grinning like an idiot all the way to the Hokage Tower.

* * *

**Team Kakashi, Hokage's office**

Naruto was glaring at the Hokage; they had just finished giving their report on what had happened in Three Peaks. Sasuke had asked some questions about the incident in the last battle. The Hokage had simply said that he had to ask Naruto.

Naruto knew he had to talk to both of them afterwards, now that the cat was out of the bag, he should give them the full story.

Hiruzen studied the young genin standing in front of him; it was amazing they had made it out alive. They had performed above the call of duty and had uncovered a plot against the village as a whole, while it hadn't unraveled yet, they had still been the ones to discover it. He took a drag on his pipe.

Letting out the smoke he began. "In regards to escorting the client, congratulations on the completion of a C-rank mission. While on the mission, you have prevented a plot against the village and for that, I wish to commend you. The council and I have decided to reward you for the completion of two A-rank missions in accordance to the threats against the village, which has been prevented by your actions, first in the prevention of Kumo acquiring the Sharingan and the Byakugan and the second in eradicating a clan which had engaged in open hostility against Konohagakure."

"Eradicating?" Naruto's voice trembled a little.

"Yes, Naruto-kun, I have received word from the ANBU team that arrived a few days later. The compound was littered with corpses, there were no survivors."

Kakashi interrupted. "While a great many enemies were killed during our mission, there were hundreds still alive in the compound that didn't join in the pursuit of us."

"The ANBU rapport counted to death toll to be 342 to be exact." Hiruzen quirked a smile at Kakashi.

"So the Kumo shinobi went back to the base and killed all survivors to prevent us being able to bring about solid proof of their involvement." Kakashi closed his eye; he hadn't expected them to go to such extremes.

"Indeed, and so, we're claiming responsibility for the slaughter of an entire clan as a deterrent to others. In other words, congratulations of having eradicated a whole clan, not many get to claim such a feat this early in their carrier."

'Hiruzen are you trying to paint a target on the backs of my students, we will have a discussion about this later.' Kakashi let out a sigh. "Thank you for your time Hiruzen-sama, if that is all I would like to dismiss my students and we can go into further details at a later time."

Hinata, Naruto and Sasuke were all reeling from what they had just been witness to. Sasuke spoke up as they exited the office. "We have a lot to discuss it seems, about you Naruto and about what just happened in there. Let's find a secluded spot and talk."

* * *

**The three genin, a short while later, small clearing in the forest behind the Hokage monument**

Hinata was scanning the surroundings; she had been training her vision on the return trip, the kunai had been a wakeup call about working even more with her dōjutsu. She had worked out how to scan a wider area by focusing her vision to narrow to it a cone for greater range and then move it in a circle around her for a full scan, enabling her to scan an area with five times the range of the normal sphere of her Byakugan.

"It's clear, there is no one around." She reverted to the normal Byakugan.

Naruto was feeling left out about this thing, he didn't understand exactly what had happened, only that both Hinata-chan and Sasuke-teme had been shocked about something. "What is all this about? I don't understand"

Sasuke dropped to the ground and looked at Naruto. "It's about politics. We have just been placed on the board as pawns in a display of strength of the village."

Hinata nodded, and continued. "Hokage-sama basically said that they would leak some of the details about the mission to the world."

Naruto was still confused. "So? What does that have to do with anything?"

Sasuke smirked at the blonde. "The thing that keeps peace between villages is that it's too costly for someone to attack a particular village. Now in the name of peace we have just been put on display as some of the power of the village." Sasuke studied Naruto for a moment, before receiving a nod from the blonde about he understood before continuing. "They are going to tell the world that Elite Jōnin Hatake Kakashi and his three genin killed, uh, four in the ravine, thirteen at the cave, two Jōnin with the wolves, the thirty-nine that pursued us and 343 at the compound, rounded up for a nice even 400 members of an unaffiliated shinobi clan for going against Konohagakure."

Hinata looked a Sasuke with wide eyes, that wasn't quite the conclusion she had come to from it, but that was certainly a much scarier conclusion. "We need to avoid the coming Chūnin exam." Hinata wasn't much for it, since that might make her miss her chance at fighting Neji-nisan.

Sasuke instantly shot her down. "We can't, this forces us to participate, and we are going to be expected to be promoted as well. Failure would mean we're weak, it could lead to war, heh, no pressure."

Naruto was looking back and forth between the two, he wasn't quite following their line of thought, but that didn't matter to him. Grinning widely he put his right hand behind his head as he had made a habit to touch the chain around his neck. "So all we need to do is kick all their asses during the Chūnin exam, sounds fun!"

Hinata started at the overly entusiastic boy. "When other villages hears about this they will probably have some of their strongest teams going after us to display their village's superiority. It will be hard."

Naruto grinned, while pointing at Sasuke. "We have out universal tool."

Sasuke nodded, pointing back at Naruto. "The equivalent of a sledgehammer."

Hinata looked at the two while shaking her head at their antics. "What am I then?"

Both Naruto and Sasuke responded immediately. "Katana"

Naruto elaborated. "Beautiful in its form, deadly and able to cut through almost anything."

Hinata had to smile at that, shaking her head once more, it was nice that they could joke around like this after the long mission, but it couldn't last, if the Hokage was going through with this chances are they would be labeled as dangerous by other villages. They would need to train even more to avoid being assassinated.

Naruto was looking at the two with a very serious expression. "I have something I need to tell you about."

* * *

**Kakashi, later in the day, Hokage's Office**

"Is this really the path you're setting my students on Hiruzen-sama?" Kakashi eyed the exhausted looking old man behind the table.

Hiruzen let out a small puff of smoke. "I'm afraid I have no choice in the matter, Kakashi. We have had several skirmishes along the Iwa border the last year. They see us as weak since we're still recovering from thirteen years ago."

"But they are still children!" Kakashi had almost shouted the last part.

"In the face of war, no one is a child Kakashi, you of all people should know that. I thrust you will help preparing them for the future." Hiruzen smirked a little at the elite Jōnin. "We need to prepare them, not just your students but all the shinobi of the village, Iwa is restless and now we have Kumo making trouble."

"I have sent a hawk to get a hand with the training." Kakashi paused for a moment then continued. "Have you talked with Hyūga Hiashi-sama about what you're planning for his daughter?"

"Yes I have spoken with Hiashi-san, he trusts in your ability to keep them safe until they are strong enough on their own. He has also talked about getting involved in training his daughter again." Pausing he looked at Kakashi. "The intelligence department has been looking into that shinobi you encountered on the mission. I know why it's not in the current bingo books." Hiruzen got up and went over to a closet pulling out a large book. "Here it is" he flipped through the pages stopping at one with a picture of a man with a thin face and greasy hair.

"That is him exactly, why isn't he in my bingo book?" Kakashi looked at the information. Raiton no Ryuu also known as the Blue Lightning.

"Because no one from Konohagakure or any of our spies has seen him in five years." Hiruzen studied the reaction of Kakashi as he chewed on that information for a minute.

Kakashi shot up in his seat. "Five years" He breathed. "That cannot be a coincidence."

Hiruzen nodded. "It would seem so; the rumor back then was he was in charge of doing anything to strengthen the village."

Kakashi swore loudly, they had been laying low after Konoha had almost declared war on them five years ago. Now they were back at it, and they couldn't prove anything.

* * *

**Hinata, lying in her bed**

She was exhausted, it was nice to be home again, after spending all that time in the snow, but the day had been mentally taxing. First, they had been thrown to the lions and then she finds out that Naruto-kun is a walking prison for the largest of all the bijū. The red chakra she had seen in his system and the seal she had seen every time he used chakra, it made things make sense. The fact that apparently most the village knew about it and it was why he was treated so badly had her boiling with righteous anger.

Her father had thrown her a curve ball as well. He had called her to his office after she had returned. He was proud of her; he had even used that word, _Proud._ Then he told her he would start teaching her. She had tried to protest, only to be shot down by the following statement. "It will be in the evening so you can still spend your afternoons training with Uzumaki-san" He knew that they had been training together, she had enquired about it but he had just tapped the side of his head next to his eyes saying they weren't just for show. That had her hang her head in defeat and she had retreated back to her room.

* * *

**Sasuke, Clan library, hidden basement main Uchiha house**

Sasuke was pouring over scrolls and books he had dug out about the Kyuubi. He hadn't really been surprised about the revelation, that red chakra had been anything but human.

Being a jinchūriki still didn't explain how he had so much chakra, it certainly explained how he had torn through all those shinobi like they were paper, but anything he could find didn't mentioned about large reserves without tapping directly into the power. He slammed his forehead into the table in frustration, back to square one with the possible bloodline.

He had gotten Kakashi to agree to help him overcome his problem with killing intend. Asking about it had launched their sensei into a lecture about it. It was a natural genjutsu, generated through the combination of the will of the user and the amount of available chakra they had, which is why it was often used as a measurement on how strong an opponent was, a strong intent often correlated with a strong enemy.

He turned out the light as he left the cellar; they were going to be busy training and possibly doing a couple more C-rank missions before they would be taking the Chūnin exam in two months.

* * *

**A/N**:

This marks the conclusion of the first real arc. Hope you all have enjoyed it so far.

Ladies and gentlemen: I give to you The Dragon. (I would say look that up on TvTropes, but I'd rather you didn't, can't have readers die from being trapped forever on that site)


	12. Chapter 12: Consequences

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or any associated characters.

* * *

**A/N:** Welcome to the twelfth chapter of Sister Lost.

Spelling, characterization and such are all on me, feel free to point out any and all glaring errors. Especially since English isn't my first language. I will try to avoid all the regular pitfalls, but it will be unavoidable that things slip through; feedback will allow me to fix mistakes and prevent future ones. So tear my grammar and spelling a new one if you find errors.

Sorry it took so long to get this one out, RL has been kicking my ass. There will be a chapter in the weekend.

* * *

**Chapter 12: Consequences**

**Sakura, Late morning, Shinobi Library**

Sakura was smiling at the boy sitting across the table. She had managed to track him down yesterday; to her surprise, he was the one to suggest they would go here today. She had been expecting to have to badger him to do it.

She had found him out behind the main Uchiha house throwing orbs of fire at small targets set up everywhere. He turned his head towards her with an intense look on his face for a moment, tomoe spinning before he blinked and the red eyes turning back to the obsidian Sakura adored.

While being at the library wasn't what she _really_ wanted to be doing with Sasuke, she did enjoy coming to the library, and him being there made a good thing better.

He hadn't even asked for help with research, perhaps spending time at the library was also his idea of having fun in his free time."Hell Yeah! Perfect match!" Inner Sakura chimed in.

They had been reading for a couple of hours now, he had been making small talk, asking how her training was going and even asking about missions. Sasuke never seemed very interested in other people, she it had caught her off guard. She told him about some of the things the genjutsu mistress had been teaching her. He was especially interested in Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu, asking if she could show him later. She was a little apprehensive about casting something like that on him.

When she had approached him yesterday, she had just heard that they had returned from their mission. A rumor about them killing hundreds of people was going around. She wasn't quite sure what to think of it, on one hand she kind of liked that Sasuke was that strong, but on the other hand an entire clan included civilians and children. The thought of an actual massacre turned her stomach.

Sasuke slammed a hand down on the table, pulling her from her thoughts. He was breathing heavily. He looked up, the eyes red, tomoe spinning in an intense look. He visibly relaxed when he saw her, then squeezed his eyes shut and contorted his face in disgust for a moment, before opening his eyes again looking at her with hint of sadness. He managed to croak out a sorry.

Sakura looked at him that answered some of the questions she had about the rumors. They had really done something awful. "Is it about the mission you just returned from? Do you want to talk about it?"

Sasuke let out a small sigh. "I can't, all details are classified." He hesitated for a moment then continued. "I remember every single detail." He gave her a searching look. "You have probably heard the rumors. We had to kill people." Sasuke made a gesture at his eyes, which were once more red, tomoe spinning lazily. "I remember them, all of them. The looks on their faces, every movement their bodies made as they died. _Everything_."

Sakura went completely pale.

She had been forced to kill on her first C-rank a month ago. A group of highwaymen had jumped them; one had slipped past and was headed to their client with a raised blade. She had run between them, a highwayman was no threat to a shinobi, even a genin. A blade even in the hands of someone with that little training could still pose a threat to their client however. She had punched him in the throat, crushing his windpipe, and watching in horror as he had crumbled to the ground, wheezing for breath until he finally suffocated. It had haunted her dreams for weeks.

If the rumor was true, Sasuke had seen hundreds of deaths. She blinked, that was the reason he had asked her to hang out today. He didn't want to be alone. Sasuke was an orphan and was always by himself, in that large section of the city the Uchiha had resided in.

Sasuke considered her a friend! She would have been happy if it wasn't such a horrible thing that had caused the revelation. What he had said months ago when he had bought her dinner was true.

Perhaps he wanted to talk about it; Sakura looked at the boy with a puzzled look on her face. She knew that he couldn't talk about specific details. "Did…" Sakura hesitated; she could push him away if he didn't actually want to talk about it. It was her duty as a friend to make sure he was okay. "Did you kill a lot of people?" Her eyes softening as she locked her eyes with his.

"Hn…" Sasuke paused for a moment before taking a deep breath. "Some… Naruto killed more than Kakashi-sensei, Hinata and I did put together."

Sakura noticed the hint of admiration that had been in his voice when he mentioned Naruto. "You did say that Naruto had been hiding how good he was in the Academy, but more than all of you?"

"You don't understand he can make _solid_ clones. I think we are about equal in strength against a single enemy. He is much stronger against many people; there is only so much, you can do as one person. He can be hundreds." Sasuke's eyebrow twitched a little.

Sakura considered what he was saying, she had never heard of someone being able to make clones like that. There were several techniques, which could make solid clones, but all of them required so much chakra that it was rare to make more than a couple.

She turned her head, noticing what had Sasuke twitching. Two older kunoichi was standing between the shelves not far from them.

"Did you hear, they say that Hatake-san's team wiped out a whole clan?" The taller of the two whispered while looking at where Sasuke was sitting.

"I heard he let his students do most of it. The Uchiha is supposedly a prodigy and so is the Hyūga." The heavier-built woman looked at Sasuke, who was trying to ignore them.

"I heard it was the _brat_ that killed all of them." A third kunoichi had walked up to them; she had all but spat the word and was talking a little louder than the other two. Seemly obvious to the fact that Sasuke was sitting a few yards away, wearing a jacket with the clan crest of Uchiha.

The other two looked horrified at the thought of the village pariah going berserk and wiping out a clan.

Sasuke stood up so fast that he knocked over his chair, the loud clatter had the three staring at him. He turned his head, a scowl on his face, Sharingan active and stared at them. "If you're talking about Naruto, I _suggest_ you come closer and repeat what you just said." An oppressing feeling of killing intent was radiating off Sasuke.

The three all but ran out of the library.

Sasuke let breath hiss out between his teeth, placed his hands on the table and looked to Sakura. "Well that has completely put me off doing more reading in here today. I am supposed to meet the rest of my team for a bite later; you are welcome to join us, the Korean Barbeque at six. I'll see you around." Sasuke straightened back up and walked out of the library.

Sakura was dumbfounded, Sasuke defending his teammate to such a degree. He had changed in the two months he had been away. Their life style required people to grow up fast. Guess that was the reason why they were considered adults when they received the Hitai-ate.

* * *

**Sasuke, Evening the previous day**

He couldn't sleep, he had been wandering around the large house not being able to relax and get some sleep.

His mind had been going a million miles an hour since they had returned from the Hokage's office the previous day. He was excited about the prospect but also a little scared of the consequences it would have on them. Rumors like that was how you ended up in bingo-books, being in one while still a genin could turn out to be a very dangerous endeavor. On top of that, there was also the issue that Kumo was apparently after his bloodlimit, they had been after Hinata's Byakugan, but now there were aware of him being on the same team.

That many people trying to kill you, would provide plenty of opportunities to grow stronger, but it would also be hard to exact vengeance when dead.

He could not afford to skimp on training, even if their sensei had given them two days off to recover. He had trouble sleeping since they escaped, and images flashed into his mind every time he closed his eyes. To push it away, he had throwing everything he had into training.

He had been concentrating on the Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu earlier in the day, controlling more orbs, make them move faster and with greater accuracy.

He had been so focused on mastering the technique that Sakura had managed to sneak up on him. She had called his name, he turned with his Sharingan still active and it had shaken him to his core. He knew from her posture that he would be able to jump on her and tear out her throat with his teeth before she could react.

It all clicked into place, what he had read from the tablet under the Naka Shrine all those years ago. It wasn't that you had to kill your best friend, it was that you had to sacrifice a large part of your humanity, to become a monster in the quest for power. Sasuke wowed to himself that he wouldn't become a monster, wouldn't become his brother in the quest for vengeance. He would prove he was better, that he did not need _shortcuts_, did not need to sacrifice everything he was.

It struck him that it was exactly what he had been doing, isolating himself, ignoring everyone around him, it would lead to him becoming a monster. Trying to deal with the effects of the Sharingan on his own would probably only serve to exacerbate things.

He realized he had been standing for a moment with his Sharingan still spinning looking at Sakura, and quickly blinked turning it off. Deciding that he should probably take the first step away from the path of becoming a monster, he asked if she wanted to hang out at the library the next day. Sakura's face had lit up like the sun; he had to suppress the need to wince. He hoped she would move on from that crush at some point, while she weren't quite as annoying, since they had graduated and she had stopped trying to cling to him, she wasn't his type and he felt like he was leading her on. However, she was the closest thing to a friend he had outside of his two teammates, and he could use a friend right now.

* * *

**Naruto, present day a little after noon, apartment**

Naruto was sitting on his sofa, lethargic leaning his head back and starting at the ceiling, trying to tune out the soft hum of the refrigerator coming from the kitchenette. Black rings around his eyes from the lack of rest. Every time he closed his eyes, he could hear the screams; see the terror painted on the faces, blood soaking the snow, and the coppery taste of it in his mouth as he had torn through them.

He had slept since then, but it had been fitful, reliving the fight every night. Slept but not rested, there were only a couple of times on the way back; he had actually gotten some rest. He had fallen asleep sitting against Hinata-chan. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, it had always been like that. He felt at peace when she was around.

He let out a small grunt as he sat up properly. He hadn't seen her since their little impromptu meeting two days ago when they had come out of after the debriefing. She had spent much of the day yesterday at the hospital being checked out to make sure she was fit for active duty after the injury, and the rest of it training with her father, she was going to be at the restaurant later, but until then he still had a whole afternoon to kill by himself.

He had been wandering around aimlessly the previous day. He had gone past the Nara residence, Shikamaru was out on a mission. He didn't know what to do with himself, he didn't feel like training. Eventually he had just ended up sitting on top of the Hokage monument, just looking out over the town.

With a small sigh, he got up. He went out the door and set into a run to get the blood pumping so it could wash away the lethargy. Just thirty minutes later he was feeling refresh, he stopped by a public rest room to splash a bit of water in his face. Catching his reflection in the mirror, he noted that the black rings, he had been sporting all morning, had faded away.

He headed towards a bank; he needed to open an account. The stipend he had lived off while he was in the Academy and the money he had been making from doing the C-rank missions before they headed off to Three Peaks had never been more than he could handle lugging the money around in Gama-chan. The pay for a fifty-six day C-rank and two A-rank missions however was a lot of money, more than he could possibly carry around, even as bills.

Naruto entered the bank; he had half expected to be ignored as he did by most of the village. Perhaps ignored was the wrong word, people were always busy not looking at him. He hadn't expected the reaction that followed however. A man in some very fancy clothes intercepted him right after he had entered the bank.

"Uzumaki-sama, I am honored by your presence, how may I serve you?" As he did a deep bow.

Naruto did a double take, not sure how to respond to that. Resisting the urge to reach behind his neck and touch the lock of his necklace, as he was wont to do when put on the spot. After a few seconds, he finally snapped out of it. "I need to open an account and deposit these mission-chits."

The man smiled at him. "Certainly, if you would follow, then we can get started on the paper work." Things had slowed down a lot of for the revenue stream generated by the shinobi populations since the last war ended fifteen years ago, the banker was happy that the current generation was showing promise, skilled shinobi were high value clients for banks in Konohagakure. If the rumors were to be believed, Uzumaki Naruto would become a very good client indeed.

Naruto stood outside the bank a while later, his eyes wide as he looked at the bank statement. He had never seen that much money before. He had made a sizable withdrawal after cashing in the mission-chits. He needed to go on a spending spree. 'I need wire, fishing wires of various types, kunai, exploding tags and lots of those _cool_ sealing scrolls'

He grinned widely as he went down the street towards the specialty store for fuinjutsu.

He noticed that people instead of trying to ignore him, was giving him a wide berth on the street. Something was going on, but he didn't quite know what, he shrugged and went into the store. Picking up quite a few storage scrolls, some for small inanimate objects designed for small weapons and tools, and a few stasis scrolls. He wanted to bring ramen for his next mission, two months was pushing it without the food of the gods. An idea struck him and he grabbed an extra stasis scroll.

He dumped large amount of scrolls he was carrying onto the counter. All fuinjutus items were restricted to the shinobi population because of the danger it poses. Not everyone able to mould chakra had the mindset to become shinobi. A part of the civilian population would be able to use many of the items, which without the training on it they received in the Academy, could be highly dangerous for them and people around them. Explosive tags were kept behind the counter and would only be released if one could provide a Hitai-ate and a shinobi ID marked for active duty.

Naruto cleared his throat; the shop attendant had been getting something from under the counter and straightened up. He went white, eyes wide staring at Naruto. "U-Uzumaki-sama." Taking a step away from him and bumped into the shelf behind him.

Naruto looked at the man; it was like out in the street, what was going on? Making a small shrug, he then looked at the man with a twinkle in his eyes. "I want to buy these and fifty explosive tags."

"Y-Yes certainly."

Naruto paid for his items, and went on his way; this was certainly turning out to be a strange day. That bank guy had been pretty nice, but what was with all the other people. He would prefer the way people normally treated him to whatever this were. He had heard this name whispered a few times while walking down the street, unable to make sense of it; he went towards the next destination. A little weapon shop run by an old guy that always treated him nicely.

* * *

**Weapon store some time later**

He stood looking at some rolls of wire, he didn't use wire for attacking like Sasuke, but it was important for trap triggers. He should probably buy a good stockpile of it now that he could carry it around with his new scrolls. He held up one of the scrolls while trying to figure out how much wire he could fit into it.

A chipper female voice sounded out behind him. "Oh, a storage scroll, you like Fūinjutsu?"

Naruto turned around to look at the girl standing next to him. Two bangs of brown hair hanging over her forehead protector.

"I didn't think anyone else in our age group liked Fūinjutsu." As she smiled at him.

Naruto frowned, she seemed familiar but he couldn't quite place where he had seen her before. "Fūinjutsu is awesome; it is so cool to be able to store things in small scrolls like this." Naruto's eyes opened wide and started twinkling as he continued. "And explosive tags, so _awesome_!"

The girl giggled at the entirely too enthusiastic boy, but she could understand him Fūinjutsu was indeed awesome. "So do you know how to make seals yet?"

Naruto deflated a little. "No, I asked my sensei and he said that he didn't have time to get into it until after the Chūnin exam, he showed me this really cool explosive tag, and now I have to wait months until I can start learning it!" Frustration creeping into his voice on the last part.

"If you want I can help you get started." Flashing the blonde a smile, it would give her something to do, she had been bored out of her mind all day.

"Really? REALLY?" Naruto almost vibrated with excitement taking a few seconds to calm down then continued. "But don't you have stuff to do?"

She shrugged. "My teammate is in the hospital with severe chakra exhaustion, he was trying to learn a new technique. I'm not quite sure where the rest of my team is, but I'm sure my sensei and my other teammate is out there doing something inane."

Naruto could certainly relate that. Having problems finding something to do when he wasn't training with Hinata-chan.

"There is a really good store near here that sells what you need to get started." She turned and walked towards the exit of the store, Naruto following, the purpose of coming into the weapon store forgotten.

As they made their way down the road, Naruto rolled his eyes at people's reaction to him. "Really appreciate you taking your time helping me."

A while later the two sat at a small table in a café nearby, Naruto was looking at the first few pages with a confused look on his face.

'Not too bright is he?' Sighing a little, he obviously wasn't going to learn it from a book, perhaps she could explain it to him. Pulling out a scroll. "This is a storage scroll I made myself." Pointing to the area for sealing an item. "We call this whole thing a sealing matrix. In a matrix there are several arrays, these arrays is what determine what the seal does."

Naruto nodded looking at the scroll. He was seriously impressed at the scroll, the array took up less space than the ones he had on the scrolls he had bought in the store.

She pointed to various parts of the array explaining. With Naruto just nodding as she went through it, she wasn't quite sure the boy got it, but at least he didn't look as confused.

"How did you learn all this stuff anyways?" Naruto had his hand behind his head fiddling with the necklace, this was confusing as get out, but at least her explanation was better than the technical details in the book.

Her gaze dropped down towards the table, he felt so damn familiar to her, so she decided to tell him. "I'm an orphan, I don't have anything outside missions and training, so I'm working hard to get known as a great kunoichi like Tsunade-hime."

Naruto let out a sigh. "I'm an orphan too."

Both narrowed their eyes for a moment, wide eyed a moment later they locked eyes as they both jumped up pointing at each other. "Ahhh AHHHH!" Naruto started laughing.

She had struck up the conversation because he seemed familiar, now she finally knew who he was. "Na-chan!" She got up fast and hugged the boy for all he was worth. He had been her only friend in that hellhole of a place.

Hours passed as the two told each other what had happened in the last 6 years. She had entered the Academy and graduated top kunoichi of her class. She had been trying to become a medic-nin like Tsunade after graduating, but found that she had no talent for it, instead finding that she had a knack for sealing, and incorporated it her fighting style.

Naruto got up from the table. "I need to meet my team for dinner, wanna come along? I'm sure they won't mind."

* * *

**Kakashi, outskirts of Konohagakure**

Kakashi was wheezing slightly, why had he been so stupid as to challenge Gai to laps around the village? _Training_. Kakashi would sigh if his lungs had allowed him to expel the extra air.

He had failed to protect his cute students properly during that screw up of a mission. He decided that he had gotten too lax in his training regiment since leaving ANBU, and decided that training while also antagonizing Gai had been an excellent idea.

Of course, he was regretting it now, the mini Gai clone was running with them, neither looked tired. Maybe he really had been taking it too easy.

He needed to get into peak condition, he needed to increase his chakra reserves, the Sharingan was too draining.

Once they got to the other side of the Chūnin Exam things would probably start to get a lot harder for his team. If things went as he full expected all three to be promoted, there was no way around it. It was a delicate time; he had spent most of the previous day in meetings.

The chūnin exam was going to be a lot bigger than initially planned. Recent events and skirmishes along the Iwa border had forced their hand. Konohagakure had to appear strong; the only way to do that was to show off. Besides the plans already going to effect from this year to increase the graduating classes, there would be a step up in training. Normally there were certain limits to what was taught to genin, mostly shying away from teaching advanced jutsu. This was due to most people going missing-nin were genin or low ranked chūnin.

This year's graduating class was different it was mostly clan members. Besides Haruno Sakura and partially Uzumaki Naruto, due to him not actually knowing that he was from a clan, the class was entirely established clans, which usually meant loyalty to the village. They could afford to give them a boost in ability the next two months.

All the clan heads had been given orders of accelerate their young member's training. Kakashi had almost keeled over laughing at Shikaku's facial expression, when Hiruzen had been so cheeky as to assign it as a mission to him, making sure he actually did it. Kurenai would step up the training of Haruno and he would take care of training Sasuke and Naruto. He knew he didn't have to work them harder. His team was already very driven, but he would show them some useful jutsu.

Two months wasn't enough for element training for Naruto, so that would be put off until after the exam. Instead, he would help him with using the Kage Bunshin more efficiently it was his greatest strength.

Sasuke would take like a duck to water with any jutsu he would be shown. What Sasuke needed the most was combat experience with the sharingan active.

They probably not do any more missions, save for the handful of D-rank needed to retain active mission status. Six days of training a week should give them the final edge they would need for the exam.

Training would be starting tomorrow, he had graciously given them two days to recover before he would put them through hell, the thought causing him to smirk a little under his mask.

He started to slow down, they had been running at high speed for the last ten hours and he couldn't anymore, it was time to admit defeat. As much as he didn't like to lose to Gai, he didn't rely as much on physical power as his rival and wasn't as trained.

* * *

**Hinata, Sasuke and Sakura, few minutes past six in the evening, Korean Barbeque**

Hinata was sitting across from Sasuke and Sakura; she still had her eyebrow quirked up with an amused smile at him inviting Sakura. He seemed to have livened up a little since they had returned.

They turned as Naruto opened the door to the restaurant. A girl stepped in before him. Clad in a pink sleeveless blouse, brown hair tied into two buns with bangs hanging over her Hitai-ate, with her brown eyes studying the group.

Naruto stepped in and past her. "Guys I'd like to introduce you to Tenten. We grew up in the same orphanage." He pointed at his teammates and introduced them to her, before making his way to the bench, scooting in next to Hinata. Tenten slided in after Naruto, who was now flanked between the two kunoichi.

Tenten smiled at them. "Hyūga and Uchiha... You guys are Kakashi's students! My sensei keeps talking about you guys, the students of his eternal rival" She paused for a moment. "So it's you guys people have been talking about the last two days. Did you really kill four-hundred people?"

Naruto looked down at the table, with a guilty expression.

Sasuke smirked. "We had a run in with a clan on a mission." Avoiding actually confirming or denying the overstatement, as his book had taught him about evasive replies. His smirk turned into a real smile. Naruto flanked by his girlfriend and his childhood friend, this was going to be _fun_.

* * *

**A/N**:

Here comes a new CHALLENGER!

So I was super indecisive where to go with this one, direct all your rage towards **Solvdrage **if you dislike Tenten (:

(5:52:06 PM) **Solvdrage: **Maybe Tenten vs Hinata to be different

Not my fault he didn't state how *whistles innocently* (Also this is not an interactive fic, but I do talk about stuff with some of the other authors on the site. I can highly recommend his (Solvdrage's) work)

It should be noted this is not a harem story and will not ever be one, but that does not mean we can't have a bit of drama, them being teenagers and all.

Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu = Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique  
What Kakashi casts on Sakura during the bell test in the cannon.

Super happy for reviews so far. Questions will be answered through PM's it is simply too much to answer through the Author Notes, unless it is relevant to understanding something about the story. Also feel free to PM any questions, I will answer anything that does not spoil the story.

Thanks to **md5i** for help with grammar and spelling on Chapter 10 and 11.

Thanks to **Solvdrage** for helping with some story aspects of chapter 12 (And not just the Tenten bit).

* * *

**Omake**:

Naruto entered the restaurant, a girl walking behind him. Hinata's eyes widened in recognition. "Hey Tenten-chan!" As she gave the girl a small wave.

Naruto looked at her. "You two know each other?"

Hinata nodded while smiling. "She is Neji-nīsan's girlfriend."

Tenten sucked in some air and appeared to be choking, coughing violently for a good twenty seconds. Face red either from the girl's words or the coughing fit.

Hinata just smiled. "How did you manage to finally get him to go out with you anyways?"

Tenten replied in a small voice "I told him it was *cough* fate *cough*"

Hinata tried to keep a straight face for a moment before collapsing over the table from laughter.


End file.
